Freedom of Transit. 1. Goods (including baggage), and also vessels and other means of transport, shall be deemed to be in transit across the territory of a contracting party when the passage across such territory, with or without trans-shipment, warehousing, breaking bulk, or change in the mode of transport, is only a portion of a complete journey beginning and terminating beyond the frontier of the contracting party across whose territory the traffic passes. Traffic of this nature is termed in this article "traffic in transit".
Freedom of Transit. A Member State shall afford freedom of transit without discrimination to goods consigned to and from the areas of other Member States, provided that a Member State may impose such conditions upon such transit as it deems necessary to protect its legitimate interests in respect of goods of a kind of which the importation into its area is prohibited on grounds of public morals, public health or security, or as a precaution against animal or plant diseases, parasites and insects, or in pursuance of the provisions of a multilateral international agreement to which it is a party; and provided further that a Member State shall not be precluded from refusing transit, or from taking any measures deemed necessary by it in connection with such transit, for the purpose of protecting its security interests.
Freedom of Transit. 1. Any regulations or formalities in connection with traffic in transit imposed by a Member shall not be:
Freedom of Transit. 1. Products imported into, or exported from, a Member State shall enjoy freedom of transit within the Common Market and shall only be subject to the payment of the normal rates for services rendered.
Freedom of Transit. Fees and charges may only include charges for transportation or those commensurate with the administrative expenses or approximate cost of services Formalities, documentation requirements and customs controls shall not be more burdensome than necessary to identify the goods, and ensure fulfilment of transit requirements In-transit goods shall not be subject to any customs charges or unnecessary delays or restrictions Technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures will not apply on goods in transit Disciplines on transit guarantee – limited to ensuring requirements arising out of transit, comprehensive guarantees Members’ mutual cooperation and coordination on transit
Freedom of Transit. Commitment not to impose non-transport-related fees or to seek voluntary restraints (binding); various disciplines on inspection and guarantee schemes (mostly binding).
Freedom of Transit. Products imported into, or exported from, a Member Territory shall, enjoy freedom of transit within the Area and shall only be subject to the payment of the normal rates for services rendered.
Freedom of Transit. At the Forty-fifth Session Austria informed the Contracting Parties that with effect from 1 December 1989, Austria had limited traffic of certain heavy trucks during night hours on certain Austrian roads. This measure applied to trucks of all nationalities, including Austrian trucks. On 28 February 1990 Austria requested consultations under Article XXII:1 with respect to a measure by the Federal Republic of Germany banning the circulation of 212,000 Austrian lorries during night hours in the entire territory of the Federal Republic. The German measure applied only against Austrian trucks, and, in the view of Austria, was inconsistent with, inter alia, Article V.10 See also the reference to freedom of transit and Article V in the Working Party Report on “Accession of the United Arab Republic”.11
Freedom of Transit. The ATF includes several measures that facilitate transit procedure (pre-arrival declaration, prohibit restrictive measures in relation to customs charges, formalities, and inspections other than at the offices of departure and destination). It contains several provisions relating to guarantees. • Chapter 1 of SA E to the RKC sets out principles concerning Customs transit. It covers procedures such as formalities at the office of departure, Customs seals, formalities en route and termination of Customs transit. • Chapter 2 to SA E to the RKC concerns transhipment (see also the RKC Guidelines ), Article 11 of the WTO ATF Freedom of transit
Freedom of Transit. The importance of transit as an element of trade facilitation is critical particularly from the perspective of landlocked developing countries. They are, by definition, more dependent on transit for market access. SADC as a Regional Economic Community (REC) has the highest number of landlocked countries in Africa. Box 6: SADC Regional Transit Management System Recognising the importance of transit for the Southern African region, the SADC Transit Management System was developed in order to facilitate trade. The legal basis is derived from the Protocol on Trade and consists of: • Annex IV of the Protocol on Trade concerning Transit Trade and Transit Facilities • Appendix VI of the Annex IV concerning to the Regional Customs Transit Bond Guarantee (RCTBG) • Transit Regulations, and Transit Manual. Source: SADC Protocol on Trade 1996, as amended. However, according to the SADC Customs Audit carried out in 2011, only one Member State is currently using the SADC Regional Transit Management System. Various challenges account for non-implementation of the SADC Transit Management System. The Customs Audit speaks about the domestication of the instrument by Member States into national law, and identifies recognition of the bond guarantee by relevant authorities throughout a certain corridor and multiple memberships as a contributing factor. For a transit management system to be effective, an agreed regional bond must be recognised in all Member States. Without agreement and acceptance of a regional bond, it would be a challenge to implement a regional transit management system. Regardless, the SADC Regional Transit Bond Guarantee, which was approved by Ministers, is not operational despite the fact that implementation could yield significant improvements in trade facilitation in the region. This is in part due to the fact that some main countries along a corridor such as the DRC, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania belong to more than one regional economic grouping, namely the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East Africa Community (EAC) that have already adopted other transit instruments. Interestingly, it appears that traders prefer to utilise national transit instruments of each country within that specific corridor which naturally adds to the costs of doing business in the region.
