25 october 2023 — 16:00
Since the beginning of 2023, 40 thousand heavy trucks from the EU, Ukraine, Norway and the UK have not been able to cross the border with the Russian Federation due to the restrictions imposed. This was announced by the first deputy head of the North-Western Customs Administration (NWTU) Sergey Senko at a press conference in TASS. This restriction was a response to a similar ban related to the transfer of trailers and goods at the border to Russian carriers.
This year, more than 40 thousand vehicles of international transportation fell under the ban, which is about 16% of the total volume of goods transported by vehicles. In the direction of entry into the Russian Federation, 8.5 thousand transshipments were carried out at temporary storage warehouses and almost 25 thousand interceptions at our checkpoints, Sergei Senko said:
- The experience of three quarters of this year shows that the logistics processes for the interception of goods at the border are debugged and do not create difficulties for customs.
The representative of the NWTU also stressed that the introduction of restrictions from the Russian side helped to support employment in the international transportation market - domestic carriers who lost their direct routes to the EU countries were able to compensate for losses by delivering imported goods from the Russian border.
The press conference was also informed that, despite the sanctions restrictions, which significantly reduced trade turnover with companies from the European Union, trade with most countries of the continent and the world through the ports of the Northwest continues. This year, goods were imported from 149 countries through the regions of the NWTU activity, goods were exported to 144 countries.
- Of course, the sanctions imposed have made themselves felt, including in logistics. We are talking about the fact that in the region of the department's activities, first of all, the Large Seaport of St. Petersburg, new logistics routes have opened and continue to open this year, which directly deliver goods from China and other Southeast Asian countries. If we are talking about exporters, they have also shifted to other modes of transport, and goods are leaving in a southerly direction, including towards China," added the first deputy head of the North-Western Customs Administration.
Recall that in October last year, the Russian government published a decree banning road freight transportation on the territory of the country for companies from EU countries, Norway, Ukraine and the UK. The ban applies to bilateral and transit transportation. At the same time, a number of goods are provided for the transportation of which this restriction does not apply. Among them are various types of food, finished goods, ingredients, as well as non-food cargo.