SMGS: new rules on international rail transportation of freights. What the exporter should know about it
Keywords:
Organization for Cooperation of Railways (OCR), Agreement on international railway freight traffic (SMGS), conceptual framework of SMGS, dispositive and referential norms of SMGS, planning of transportation of goods, international railway communication, special conditions of transportation of goods, cargo delivery time, payment for transportation of goods, responsibility of a railway carrier, unsafe freight transportationAbstract
The article is devoted to the new edition of the Agreement on international railway freight traffic (SMGS), which has come into force on July 1, 2015. New edition of SMGS differs from the previous on the majority of points and actually represents a new concept of legal regulation for transportation of goods through the international railway communication. The author points to 10 SMGS provisions that can be useful to Russia’s exporters for delivering goods by railway transport. These points include dispositive character of some provisions of Agreements, references to norms of the national law, a new order of planning of transportation of goods through the international railway communication, alteration of time standards for cargo deliveries, a new procedure for payment of transportations across the national railroads, etc.