GUYANA is moving to finalise an International Road Transportation Agreement (IRTA) with Brazil to regularise the movement of vehicles, particularly commercial vehicles, across the border between the two countries.
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon disclosed yesterday that Cabinet had agreed to a delegation comprising representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Public Works and Communications Ministry and its Work Services Group (WSG), and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to visit Boa Vista early next month for related discussions with their Brazilian counterparts.
“The IRTA will relate to the nature of the transportation links and the laws and reconciliations to regularise them. The big thing is trade and the involvement of motorised transport in trade,” he said.
The team will discuss, for example, the requirements to facilitate the movement of a goods truck from Brazil to Georgetown (or any part of Guyana) and back, and vice versa, insurance for such vehicles and cargoes which can be brought across or taken across the borders.
Dr. Luncheon observed that cross-border movement of vehicles is usually a bone of contention in many bordering countries where motorized transport is in involved in trade.
He said that the Boa Vista meeting to be held on July 13th is the latest in such meetings which have been ongoing for some time and is intended to concretise the IRTA between the two countries which would free up cross border trade.
He said that what is being sought by the Brazilians as well as the Guyanese is an arrangement similar to that which exists at a somewhat advanced stage on the Guyana/Suriname border.
“It is felt that the situation with respect to cross border vehicular movements on the Guyana-Brazil border  needed to be looked at to have some type of similarity, to reach some type of coincidence between what is happening on the Suriname side and what is happening on the Brazil side.