BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

09/03/2007

Belarus cancels mandatory convoying of Kalinigrad transit cargoes

MINSK, March 9 (Itar-Tass) - Belarus canceled the mandatory convoying of Russian transit cargoes from the Kaliningrad region, spokesman for the republic's state customs committee Vladimir Pekhterev told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

"In the course of talks with Russia, a compromise was found, which helped ease certain tensions existing in this issue," Pekhterev said

The instruction by the Belarussian customs committee which cancelled the measure was received at the Kamenny Log customs post at 23:00, Moscow time, on March 7, he added.

Belarus introduced mandatory convoying from January 8, 2007, explaining the move by the necessity to stop the illegal imports of foreign goods labeled as Russian.

Customs control chief Sergei Borisyuk said the checks in 2005 an 2006 had found that 47 batches of goods worth some 10 million dollars had not been taken outside of Belarus. They were part of the cargoes shipped under the so-called streamlined procedure for Kaliningrad transit, Borisyuk said.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11317559&PageNum=0