Documents for International Rail Freight: From SMGS to the Certificate of Origin

At sea, the bill of lading is the king of documents. In rail freight, that role belongs to the railway waybill issued under the SMGS agreement. One missing or inconsistent document below means the cargo stops at the border.

Core documents

• Rail waybill (SMGS): the carriage contract and the proof of delivery; in SMGS member states it is transferable without a separate document.
• Commercial invoice: the basis for customs valuation and import duties.
• Packing list: reconciling package counts and weights with wagons; mismatches here are the most common trigger of physical inspection.
• Certificate of origin: essential for preferential tariffs (or for sanctions exposure).

Supplementary documents by cargo type

1. Standard certificate for industrial goods and spare parts
2. Health or phytosanitary certificate for food and agricultural goods
3. Import/export licence for controlled goods
4. Dangerous goods declaration (DGD) for chemicals

Three golden rules for rail documents

1) The sender and receiver names must be identical and complete on every document. 2) The goods description must match word-for-word across waybill, invoice and packing list. 3) The wagon seal number must appear on both the waybill and the border protocol.

Lihu Rail Transport's documents team reviews the full document set of each consignment before the train departs, and clears discrepancies before they ever reach the border.