In accordance with the Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2020, the final annual meeting of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic in a videoconference format was held from 6 till 9 October 2020 with the participation of the representatives of railways of the OSJD member countries from: AZD CJSC, ARA, BC, MAV Co., VZD, GR, RAI, KZH, KORAIL, KRG, LDZ, LTG, CFM, UBZD JSC, PKP JSC, RZD JSC, ZSSK Cargo, TDZ, TRK, UTI , UZ, CD Cargo and EVR; OSJD affiliated enterprises – Rail Cargo Hungaria Co., SIGIS LLC, METRANS JSC, Association of Transport High Schools, Eurosib SPb-Transport Systems CJSC, UTLC ERA JSC, Russian Post JSC, Ruscon LLC, CTM LLC, “Center for Cargo Container Traffic TransContainer” PJSC, “Digital Logistics” LLC, Unicom Transit JSC and “PLASKE” JSC; international organisations - UNESCAP, UPU, WCO, EAEC, UIC, CCTT, TMTM, as well as the OSJD Committee.

As part of the agenda, the working results of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic in 2020 were considered on the following topics:

- Organisation of combined transport in international traffic;

- Improving the Agreement on the Unified Transit Tariff (ETT) and updating the ETT Tariff;

- Improving the Agreement on the International Railway Transit Tariff (MTT) and updating the MTT Tariff;

- Improving the Agreement on the use of freight wagons in international traffic (PGW).

- Updating the Harmonized Nomenclature of Goods (GNG);

- Updating the List of Freight Stations of OSJD Railways;

- Organisation of international large-capacity container traffic;

- Organisation of transportation of postal items by rail;

- Development of freight traffic using the CIM/SMGS consignment note;

- Works in cooperation with the UNESCAP for the development of container traffic;

- Coordination of timetables for the movement of freight trains of the OSJD railways in international traffic;

- Coordination of the volume of cargo transportation in international traffic;

- Competitiveness and marketing issues.

The Chairperson of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic Zubaida Aspayeva informed the meeting participants that most part of the meetings of the Commission in 2020 was organised and held in a videoconference format due to the difficult situation in the world related to the restrictive measures imposed by the countries to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, and noted that the tasks within the subjects under the approved Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2020were accomplished by the railways of the OSJD member countries.

It was noted that in the current situation in the world, OSJD members are taking all possible measures to ensure the uninterrupted organisation of railway freight traffic, and today the transportation of goods by rail is carried out in a regular mode.

During the meeting, the draft “Report on the working results of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2020” and the Work Plan of the OSJD Commission on Freight Traffic for 2021 were considered and agreed upon.

The meeting participants were informed about the participation in the following CCTT events organised in a videoconference format:

- International virtual business forum “Development of Eurasian multimodal transportation in a new economic paradigm” (15 July 2020), where the following issues were discussed: marketing promotion of railway and multimodal container services of companies participating in the transportation of goods in the China – Europe – China traffic; creating a platform for discussing the possibilities and prospects for realizing the transit potential of the Eurasian continent and searching for mutually beneficial solutions, attracting additional freight volumes for transportation from Europe to China;

- International video conference “Trans-Eurasian container services in the China-Europe traffic” (28 July 2020), the purpose of which was to familiarize European transport and logistics companies and cargo owners with the modern capabilities and advantages of railway and multimodal container services for the delivery of goods from China to Europe and from Europe to China;

- VI-th CCTT/TSIOAJ Business Forum “Trans-Siberian Railway in the system of Eurasian transportation: new opportunities and prospects” (24 September 2020), the purpose of which was to inform the cargo owners and transport and logistics companies of Japan about the advantages of transporting goods from/to Japan along the Trans-Siberian route; presentation of intermodal container services and discussion of the issues related to the optimization of logistics processes (application of a competitive through rate, reduction of transit time, simplification of customs procedures, etc.).

It was noted that the working staff of the Commission prepared and posted onto the OSJD website (www.osjd.org):

- the updated text of the Agreement on the organisational and operational aspects of combined transport in the traffic between Europe and Asia as of 1 October 2020 taking into account the announced amendments;

- updated texts of the ETT Agreement and the ETT Tariff as of 8 September 2020, taking into account the announced changes and amendments;

- updated texts of the Agreement on MTT and MTT Tariff as of 15 September 2020, taking into account the announced changes and amendments;

- the current text of the Agreement on PGW with annexes, being prepared in the course of the amendments and additions coming into force;

- the text of the GNG Nomenclature of Goods as of 1 June 2020;

- the current text of Leaflet O 405 (III-rd edition) as of 1 August 2020;

- up-to-date information on the List of Freight Stations of OSJD Railways in PDF format;

- other documents within the competence of the Commission.