URUMQI, Aug. 23 -- Loaded with goods such as walnuts and steel pipes, five vehicles bearing TIR signs departed from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for Pakistan on Tuesday.

Their departure marks the first TIR transport operation between China and Pakistan since they established diplomatic relations in 1951. The move enriches Xinjiang's cross-border transportation and opens up a new international logistics route along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

With the initiation of TIR transport between China and Pakistan, businesses will further benefit from streamlined customs clearance processes, thus enhancing trade facilitation and the efficiency of cargo transit, as well as reducing transportation time and costs, said Cheng Tao, deputy chief of Kashgar Customs in Xinjiang.

TIR is an international customs transit system to help save time and money for transport operators and customs authorities when moving goods across borders.

China joined the TIR Convention in July 2016 to simplify and streamline the administrative formalities of international road transport.