Demands of Polish carriers won't go unanswered - Kiev
MOSCOW. Nov 8 (Interfax) - An agreement on liberalization of motor freight transportation was signed between the European Union and Ukraine, rather than between Ukraine and particular countries, so the demand of Polish carriers that permits be reinstated for Ukraine are futile, head of the Ukrainian State Agency for Restoration and Development of Infrastructure Mustafa Nayyem said.
"Now it is very important to calmly declare and record two important ideas. Firstly, Ukraine has no intention even to discuss the reinstatement of the permit system," Ukrainian media quoted Nayyem as saying on a social network. He thus commented on the blocking of three checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border, Krakovets-Korchova, Rava-Ruska - Hrebenne, and Yagodin-Dorohusk, started by Polish carriers on November 6.
"Secondly, the main reason for signing the freight transportation agreement was breaches of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement," Nayyem said.
The agreement prohibits a deterioration of the terms of mutual market access, Nayyem said. Poland set the quota at 200,000 permits for Ukraine in 2016 and 120,000 in 2021, whereas the total trade turnover with EU member states grew almost 45%.
Poland also directly breached the rights of Ukraine, including Article 5 (Freedom of Transit) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which Ukraine joined on February 5, 2008. The article envisages free transit through the territory of each side by the routes most convenient for international transit, he said.
"For instance, we lost up to 500 million euros in 2021 alone because of the crisis with Polish permits because we simply ran out of permits and the Polish side refused to issue the new ones," Nayyem said.
In his words, the permit system was an artificial barrier to free trade and limited both bilateral trade and Ukrainian transit in EU member states.
"I very much hope we will never go back to the discriminatory practice that limited our trade with the EU," Nayyem said.
Polish carriers demand that empty Polish trucks returning to Poland from Ukraine cross the border without waiting for ten to 12 days. Stricter rules of transportation by CEMT (European Conference of Ministers of Transport permits) is another demand.