The Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention, 1975) is one of the most successful international transport conventions and is so far the only universal Customs transit system in existence. To date, it has 68 Contracting Parties, including the European Community. It covers the whole of Europe and reaches out to North Africa and the Near and Middle East. More than 40,000 operators are authorized to use the TIR system and around 3 millions TIR transports are carried out per year.