After three years of negotiations Lithuanian National Road Carriers’ Association Linava has been informed by the Customs Service of the Russian Federation that customs officers were ordered not to carry out additional screening of Lithuanian goods and vehicles, according to ELTA.
According to the president of Linava Algimantas Kondrusevičius, the Customs Service of Russia not only discontinued additional screening, but also abolished the lists of reliable and unreliable carriers.
In July 2009 Russia tightened its border control for Lithuanian carriers. Some media sources called this action unofficial embargo at that time. Negotiations began in order to improve the conditions for Lithuanian carriers. At first Russia announced the list of 29 unreliable Lithuanian carriers which later was shortened to 22. After an extensive work the list of more than 600 reliable Lithuanian carriers was created in 2010. However, new businesses could not be added to this list.
The head of the TIR Department of Linava Heliodoras Giedrys argued that almost 40 newly established Lithuanian carriers used to experience difficulties due to the Moscow’s decisions.
The abolished additional screening will let Lithuanian carriers to save more time when crossing the border of the Customs Union between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.
