85 Anuário Yearbook ABLA 2014 We started the Inter-American Chamber of Transport (CIT) twelve years ago, in 2002, to represent the interests of countries on the American continent. Thus it was that we drew up a four-step proposal to achievepolitical recognition, as follows. For thefirst fouryears,CITsought tostrengthen the entities in each country, uniting them around a single organization, called by us a ‘Chapter.’ In this first step, weovercameamajorbarrier,assomeentitieswerenot even talking toeachother.However, thisstrengthening isacontinuouseffort. Historically, Brazil has turned its back on the Spanish American countries over five centuries. So, foranother twoyears, thesecondstep involvedmutual recognition in the name of friendship between the Chapters. Our planning focused on uniting the entities in the same member countries. It was necessary for everyone to sit down together, face-to-face, and gain mutual trust. Nobody sits at the CIT table just to win, because if onewins, someonehas to lose. Our proposal is that everyone should win. Today, we have Chapters in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,CostaRica,ElSalvador,Ecuador,Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, DominicanRepublic, UruguayandVenezuela. The third step was achieved by the seventh year, whenwehadourpresenceassuredat theOrganization of American States (OAS), in 2009. The political interests of our entities need an interlocutor and the OAS is right place for governments tohear us. Finally, our plan was completed in the tenth year (2012) when the CIT was recognized as a member organizationbyUNCTAD,whichopened theway for us to raise issues for member countries on humanitarian andsafetyconcerns related to transport. InSeptember 2013, the CIT held its 20th General Assembly at the headquartersof theUnitedNations. This year, the 21th session was held in Geneva - Switzerland, in April, with the International Road Transport Union (IRU), with whom we entered into a mutual cooperation agreement in 2013.In it, we were joined by two new members: FENALOC (Brazil) and ITPC (Uruguay). Earlier this year, the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), of which we are members, invited us to hold our 22nd General Assembly at its headquarters inMontevideo, Uruguay - and invitation thatwas acceptedunanimously by our members. We are expanding the CIT’s horizons, believing that peoplewill bebrought together through transport. We are the ones that carry people, goods, and - indeed - theworld. ExpandingCIT’s horizons PauloVicenteCaleffi SecretárioGeral da Câmara Interamericana de Transportes – CIT SecretaryGeneral of the Inter-American Chamber of Transport - CIT
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDU0Njk=