Russia reintroduces ban on car transports through Vaalimaa border-crossing point

Finnish Customs and Ministry of Transport try to persuade Russians to reverse restriction

print this

The Finnish Customs and the Ministry of Transport and Communications are trying to persuade Russia to reverse its restrictions to heavy traffic on the Finnish-Russian border.
      Transportations of new cars are not allowed into Russia through the Russian border-crossing point of Torfyanovka opposite to Vaalimaa on the Finnish side.
      Instead, car transporters have to travel through the Nuijamaa and Imatra border-crossing points slightly further north.
     
Originally the restriction came into force in 2008, but it was temporarily abandoned last summer. At the turn of the year, however, the border-crossing point once again started to comply with the regulation.
      In a Thursday meeting between the Customs representatives of the two countries the issue was once again brought up. According to Tommi Kivilaakso, the Director of the Eastern Customs District, the Russian Customs have also tried to get rid of the regulation, but so far the attempts to annul the decree have failed.
      “All geographical and logistic reasons support the idea of transporting cars arriving in Kotka, Finland’s largest car imports harbour, directly to Vaalimaa”, Kivilaakso says.
      For Finland it is above all a question of principle: Russia should not prevent the transportation companies from using the most convenient and shortest routes. Furthermore, the restriction was imposed on Finland without negotiations of any kind.
     
So far the reintroduction of the ban has failed to cause any real harm to Finland.
      This is because transports to Russia of new cars via Finland have collapsed to a fraction of what they used to be.
      On the other hand, the number of such transports could increase quickly, should the economic growth and the demand for new cars speed up in Russia.
      This might cause problems on Highway 6 leading to Nuijamaa and Imatra, for the stretch of road’s exhaustive widening and resurfacing programme is set to continue well into next year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Putin checks on traffic at Finnish-Russian border (26.11.2008)
  Complaints cause further delays to construction of Vaalimaa truck park (7.11.2008)
  Parking fees, tolls, and road use bans in prospect for eastbound truck traffic (6.11.2008)
  Russian Transport Ministry does not want to shift container traffic from roads to railways (8.6.2009)
  Motion in Russian Duma may cause through traffic via Finland to stop (19.5.2009)

See also:
  Finnish harbours fear sharp decline in work (5.1.2009)
  Russian plan to move container transport from highways to rails to be discussed during Putin visit (2.6.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat