04 Nov 2021; MEMO: Turkey has signed two separate deals with the UAE and Pakistan that have reactivated the International Road Transport (TIR) system that allows goods to cross international borders tax-free en route to their final destination in another country, Al-Khaleej Online reported on Wednesday.
Not only will the deals reduce the cost of imports and exports, but they will also reduce the journey time from the 20 days that it normally takes through the Suez Canal.
According to reports, Turkey will benefit from using the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran. Sealed containers will be shipped from Sharjah in the UAE to the port, and then taken overland to the Bazargan-Gurbulak border crossing between Iran and Turkey. The journey time will be cut to around 6-8 days for goods coming from the UAE, and 10-12 days for goods coming from Pakistan.
A trial journey saw a truck began its journey in Ras Al-Khaimah before driving to Sharjah. There the container lorry was loaded onto a vessel for the crossing to Bandar Abbas. Once in Iran, it went by road to the Bazargan-Gurbulak border crossing, arriving in Iskenderun on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey less than a week after leaving Ras Al-Khaimah.
