Transit cargo aboard trucks and trailers at a border crossing in Tanzania. Photo/ANTHONY KAMAU
Tanzania is to close down the Mbezi transit checkpoint by end of September as it is unable to adequately serve trucks destined for hinterland states.
According to the Tanzania Revenue Authority, the move will significantly reduce days spent by transit goods in Tanzania on their way to Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo among others.
“This will address congestion of trucks at Mbezi, which does not have adequate facilities for conducting customs checks and therefore constraining the flow of local, transit and passenger transportation,” Commissioner of Customs and Excise Walid Juma said.
Under the new arrangement imports destined for the landlocked countries will undergo their first inland check up at Chalinze after they are cleared at Dar.
Transportation of transit goods is guided by international laws such as the Convention of Freedom of Transit of 1921, the Convention on Transit Trade of Land-Locked States of 1965, and the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures which was signed in Kyoto, Japan in 1973.
Others are the Repression of Customs Offences which was reached in Nairobi, Kenya in 1977, the Convention on International Multimodal Transport of Goods (Geneva 1900), the Treaty for the Establishment of the Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern Africa (PTA) (Lusaka 1981) and the Convention on the Law of the Sea (Montego Bay 1982).
The conventions require coastal states like Tanzania to speed up delivery, ensure safety and dignity of the cargo bound to hinterland destinations.
They give landlocked countries rights to use sea ports as the gateways to pass their imports/exports.
Separate transport agreements between port users (the landlocked country) and the port owners (the coastal state) are encouraged however to reinforce the conventions.
For example in 1987 Tanzania and Malawi had forged a deal for the latter to use the Dar Transport Corridor known as the “Agreement concerning the Malawi-Tanzania corridor transport system” signed in Lilongwe.
As a facilitator of transit goods, Tanzania makes minimum intervention on the goods.
The landlocked countries select the clearing agents of their choice who are accorded concession with regard to the requirement of the bond security in simplifying the movement of such goods.
A number of dry ports have been established to facilitate the movement of the transit goods.
These include the Malawi cargo centre for Malawis, the Isaka dry port for Rwanda, the DRC and Burundi and the Makuba dry port for Zambia.
The Dar es Salaam Transport Corridor is made up of highways and railways from the port of Dar es Salaam through Mbeya to the Tanzania and Zambia border posts of Tunduma and Nakonde, the road to Malawi through Kasumulu and Songwe border posts, and the road to Rwanda and Burundi through Rusumo border post.
Tanzania handles transit goods such as machinery, spare parts, food, electronic equipment, motor vehicles, cobalt, copper, golden ore and armoury among others.
