Moldova asks Ukraine to unblock trucks stuck at Russian-Ukrainian border

Chisinau, 21 January /MOLDPRES/- Moldovan Transports and Road Infrastructure Minister Iurie Chirinciuc asked Ukrainian authorities to allow trucks that have been stuck at the Russian-Ukrainian border for a whole week because of both countries’ mutual bans, to transit Ukraine’s territory. The minister’s letter reads that “Goods transported by the trucks are exclusively for Moldova”.

“An amount of 65 vehicles were stopped at the Troebortnoe-Bacevsk border crossing point on 19 January. The situation continues to be tensioned and the number of cars stuck in the customs is probably high,” the secretary of the Association of Road Carriers of Moldova ( AITA), Evgheni Gubceac said.

The AITA representative said vehicles carrying agro-food products and railway equipment or tramway lines, were banned from entering Ukraine’s territory.

Ukraine does not allow trucks to enter its territory because of the interdiction imposed on Russian products on 10 January, available until 5 August 2016 or until Russia cancels its ban on the import of Ukrainian products.

Starting with 1 January 2016, Russia has also imposed a ban on imports of Ukrainian meat products and offal of cattle, pigs, poultry, fish and shellfish, clams and other aquatic invertebrates, milk, cream, kefir, melted cheese, caffeinated roasted coffee, black tea, filter cigarettes, skin cleansers, herbicides, plant growth regulators, railway equipment or tramway lines.

Deputy Transports and Road Infrastructure Minister Sergiu Bucataru during a TV debate show said Ukrainian authorities did not have the right to ban the transit of products across Ukraine’s territory. “The transit is guaranteed by the TIR Convention, to which Moldova and Ukraine are both part,” Bucataru said.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry have given no answer so far. Referring to Ukraine’s Embassy in Chisinau, the press wrote that trucks were probably stuck at the Russian-Ukrainian border because of “a technical problem”.

Moldovan carriers carry 86.1 per cent of the total amount of the products involved in the trade turnover between Moldova and Russia. The share of Russian carriers accounted for 5.7 per cent in 2015. The share of carriers coming from tertiary countries stayed at eight per cent.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor M. Jantovan)