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Russia TIR “restored”

Russia said it had reopened 34 border crossing points to TIR on 18 June, including those with Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Ukraine.  It followed an earlier announcement by the Federal Customs Service that it had “resolved the situation with TIR Carnets” and restored its co-operation with the TIR guaranteeing association with ASMAP.  It has also published a list of border crossing points open to TIR.

Russia’s TIR system had come close to collapse due to a dispute over payment between Customs and ASMAP.  Russian Customs withdrew TIR facilities from many border crossing points.

The International Road Transport Union said it welcomed the development, but emphasised that the exact list of border crossing points reopened for TIR has not yet been published and that problems cannot be ruled out for the time being.

Speaking in mid July, deputy secretary general Marek Retelski said:  “There is a preliminary list of 34 border crossing supposed to be open to TIR, but according to the feedback received from the field, carnets are still being refused.  We are hoping that the Russian government will intervene to solve the issue once and for all in the near future”.