The FCS spoke about the "racism" in Europe against Russian carriers

The obstacles that the Europeans put up for Russian cargo carriers are nothing more than “racism,” Ruslan Davydov, the first deputy HEAD of the Federal Customs Service, told RBC.The Service appealed to the World Customs Organization about this.

Against the backdrop of sanctions, imports of goods fell to about 2020 levels, the reason for this is difficulties in logistics due to measures from unfriendly states, artificially created problems with payments, First Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service (FTS) Ruslan Davydov said in an interview with RBC.

He did not give exact figures (FCS, starting from the data for February 2022, suspended the publication of customs statistics on foreign trade). Imports to RUSSIA from non-CIS countries in April 2020 against the background of the pandemic amounted to $15 billion (in April 2021 it increased to more than $22 billion).

“Imports in the northwestern directions sank the most because of this, because ports were closed there and [Russian] ships were forbidden to sail. In addition, we see that in the Baltic countries and Poland, cargoes are artificially slowed down and subjected to 100% inspection,” Davydov said.

In April, the European Union, within the framework of the fifth sanctions package, banned Russian merchant ships from entering European ports, and Russian cargo carriers from transporting goods along European roads. However, exceptions were made for the supply of Russian oil , gas, fertilizers and food, a number of industrial metals.

The EU failed to agree on the sixth package of sanctions against Russia Politics

“Carriers are simply not allowed. Only because they are Russian. This is real racism, on a national basis, which is why we say that there is an economic war going on, ”summed up the deputy head of the FCS.

According to him, the FCS even appealed to the World Customs Organization: “We wanted to influence our neighbors so that they comply with the Kyoto Convention on the simplification of customs procedures.”

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At the same time, the transportation of goods through the eastern and southern borders of Russia, in particular CHINA , Kazakhstan, through the Caucasus, has intensified, Davydov said. The infrastructure there is actively expanding: the checkpoints themselves, access roads. “In particular, an increase in the transported cargo is observed on the Azerbaijani border. And I think that in the future the flow of goods there will continue to grow,” he said.

When the Federal Customs Service will be able to return to full or partial publication of data on exports and imports, Davydov did not specify. “It is probably not worth expecting that sanctions will be quickly lifted and we will be able to publish data in the same volume as before. But with aggregated data, I think we will slowly figure it out and start publishing again. Maybe not on ten characters, but on four (TN VED, the first four characters provide information about the commodity item.),” he said. “In the current course of events, when five packages of sanctions have already been adopted and introduced and the European Union is preparing the sixth, we probably should not show everything,” he explained. Last year, Belarus classified part of its customs data after trade sanctions against the country were imposed by the EU and the US.