CENTRAL ASIAN TRADE, QTTA AND TIR CONVENTION

Central Asia is a region of immense importance for Pakistan concerning transit trade. If routes
are compared which provide access to Central Asian Republics through Iran and Afghanistan,
the route through China is comparatively shorter and politically stable. Therefore, Pakistan
signed the Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement with China, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan
(QTTA). However, there are significant issues regarding logistics, customs, cargo – handling,
language barriers and politics. In such a scenario, using the standards under the Customs
Convention on the International Transport of Goods (TIR) 1975 is a plausible solution which
can provide a smooth functioning of the transit trade.