Newspaper “Kommersant” knowledgeableRussian rail carriers and timber shippers began to complain about the closure of their transit through Kazakhstan to China and other countries. This issue was told to the newspaper by the Eurasian Railway Transport Participants’ Association, whose participants are container operators.
The union says it has received complaints about the closure of the crossing through Kazakhstan since September last year. The owners of the complaints are operators who are faced with a ban on the supply of timber by container trains from checkpoints on the border with Kazakhstan. The union said some of them crossed into China from these points.
According to the newspaper’s report, the customs officers, who did not allow the passage of container trains, explained this refusal by referring to the Decree No. 521. Fixes checkpoints for export of certain categories of goods from Russia. Until the summer of last year, the list did not include goods exported from Russia to Belarus and Kazakhstan. In November, the document was changed, the authorities allowed the export of timber cargoes by rail to the Eurasian Economic Union countries, but the issue of transit of such cargoes from these countries has not been clarified. As a result, from December 24, container trains to China via Kazakhstan began to be stopped.
And at the end of last year, on December 30, new changes to the decision were adopted. They became operational from January 31 this year. The amendments effectively prohibit rail transit from EAEU countries. Timber cargoes can be exported from Russia outside the customs territory of the Union only in two directions: Zabaikalsk and Grodekovo (directly to China) or via Naushki in transit from the territory of Mongolia. RZD has confirmed the existence of the problem.
At the same time, the newspaper writes that there is no such problem for vehicles. For him, there are three checkpoints in Kazakhstan and one in Belarus.
Source: Gazeta
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