Role of International Transport Conventions

• International transport conventions provide a legal and documentary framework for the movement of goods by different modes of transport, and the documents accompanying them (CMR for road, CIM for rail, Air Waybill for air, Bill of Lading for maritime). 

Main trade facilitation issues in shipping are:

• • Compliance with product-related regulations for the preparation of the consignment, its packaging and the transport equipment used,
  • Preparing proper documentation to accompany the goods or to pass to parties in the transport chain, such as waybills, certificates of country of origin, certificates for agricultural goods,
  • Passing relevant detailed information about the consignment to the parties that organize and execute (part of) the transport so that they can comply with regulatory requirements and procedures,
  • Dealing with changes to the planned transport and hence changes in the required documents, for example when changing the mode of transport used,
  • Dealing with changes in ownership of and responsibilities for the goods and transport 
  • Ensuring the security of goods during transport.