territory, requiring that the products should be decanted in vehicles authorized to
continue their journey;
That this regime of interstate transit of goods in the ECOWAS region is governed by
Convention A/P4/5/82, establishing an interstate transit regime for goods in the
ECOWAS region, as provided for in Article 4 thereof, that the Article 5 et seq. specify the
formalities to be complied with in order to be admitted to transit in accordance with the
interstate transit regime through the establishment of the TRIE declaration.
That at the material time, The Gambia had not complied with the requirements for the
implementation of the Interstate Transit System (TRIE) signed in Cotonou on 29 May
1982;
That the applicant did not meet the requirements of the interstate transit of goods as
provided for by the aforementioned Convention, therefore he can not claim any
infringement of the right to free movement of persons and goods;
That, contrary to the applicant's assertion, it is not the police who is in charge of
interstate traffic, but the Customs services;
That the Community origin of the products must be confirmed by a certificate of origin
as specified in the memorandum of the Directorate-General for Customs of 16 January
2017; whereas the certificate of origin, whose specimen is attached, is compulsory for
the export of products to an ECOWAS member country; without this certificate of origin,
the product can not be exported.
That in the Senegal-Gambia report issued on 15 May 2016 it was reminded by the
Senegalese party that "road traffic between Senegal and The Gambia is governed by
Senegalese national law (Customs Code) in the absence of the possibility of
implementing the mechanism recommended by the ECOWAS Convention in this regard.
That this lack of operation of interstate road transit of goods between the two countries
is due to the absence of a national guarantor and of authorized lorries or containers,
two of which are necessary for the effectiveness of this regime, in accordance with the
provisions of Article 4 of the aforementioned convention.
8