# **Customs authorities at Ras Ajdir are well aware that these goods are being transported across the**

**border.** However, they allow the goods to cross the border for the payment of a TND 50 tax for commercial vehicles smaller than or equal to 25m<sup>3</sup> once the vehicle has been inspected. On receipt of this payment, customs officials authorize the vehicle to cross the border. According to local authorities, between 200 and 300 of these commercial vehicles cross the border into Tunisia every day.<sup>23</sup> To this figure must be added the 500–600 or so cars that transport fuel and smaller goods (for the most part small electronic goods and clothing) across the border. Finally, around 150–200 Libyan 38-ton trucks also cross the border into Tunisia.

**The information gathered at the Ras Ajdir crossing point enables us to estimate the number of vehicles, trucks, vans, and cars that cross the border each day as well as what they are transporting.** The largest volumes concern fuel, clothing, and white goods. In value terms, the largest amounts concern electronic goods, with an average resale value of around TND 12,600 per load. Some products, including fruits such as apples and bananas, are almost entirely transported using small trucks and vans.

# **Based on the data collected, it is also possible to assess the levels of informal trade flows through**

**the Ras Ajdir border crossing point, and this is presented in Tables 5 and 6.** It is clear from these data that the level of informal trade is significant, with goods worth around TND 600m per year entering Tunisia informally from Libya via Ras Ajdir. This gives the traders involved in this crossborder business a profit of around TND 120m, although the size of profits varies greatly according to the type of good being transported. Trade in fuel is larger by far than that for all the other products, both in terms of sale values and profits.

## **Box 2: Methodology**

The methodology used to calculate the figures set out in Tables 3 and 4 is as follows:

- We observed a number of vehicle types transporting each category of product. On the basis of the information we gathered, for each vehicle type and for each category of product, we calculated the average quantity being transported and an average value of the goods at the point of purchase and the point of sale.

- We calculated the proportion of each type of vehicle crossing the border each day (it was assumed that the sample observed was representative of daily vehicular traffic crossing the border). For example, in the responses to the questionnaires we distributed at the Ras Ajdir border crossing, there were 118 cars, of which 25 were carrying clothing. The local customs authorities register 500 cars passing through Ras Ajdir every day, or 1,000 over two days (the same time period as our fieldwork). Thus the 25 cars carrying clothing we observed would equate to (25x1,000)/118 = 212 vehicles carrying clothing over a two-day period, or 106 per day.

- Once the proportion of each type of vehicle carrying a particular category of product across the border each day has been calculated, it is possible to derive an idea of the scale of daily traffic by multiplying this amount by the average quantity and average value of each load being transported.

- To arrive at an annual figure, we multiplied the daily figure by 320 days, taking into account the large number of Tunisian public holidays and the month of Ramadan.

> 23 It is worth noting that the border-post is opened 24 hours a day.

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