With over 50 countries using the procedure, the TIR system is the only truly international Customs transit system currently available. In common with other Customs transit procedures, the TIR procedure enables goods to move under Customs control across international borders without the payment of the duties and taxes that would normally be due at importation (or exportation). A condition of the TIR procedure is that the movement of the goods must include transport by road.
Goods move from a Customs office of departure in one country to a Customs office of destination in another country under cover of an internationally accepted Customs transit document, the TIR carnet, which also provides a financial guarantee for the payment of the suspended duties and taxes. The guarantee system is managed by an international organization, which is currently the International Road Transport Union.
Although each Member State is a Contracting Party to the TIR Convention, the European Community is considered to be a single territory for the purposes of the TIR procedure. This means TIR can only be used in the European Community where the movement either starts or ends in a third country, or where the goods move between two or more Member States via the territory of a third country.
