Ban on Transit of "Sanctions" will not have a Serious Impact on Trade between Turkey and Russia

Turkey stopped the transit of sanctioned goods passing through its territory to Russia without warning, the customs system blocks their clearance. The participants of the cargo transportation market have not received any official notifications. At the same time, Bloomberg, citing a senior Turkish official, reported on Friday that the Turkish government had suspended the transit of sanctioned goods since March 1.

The experts of ACEX commented on the situation to the Interfax news portal.

Turkey's ban on the transit of sanctioned goods to the Russian Federation will not have a serious impact on trade between the countries, since most of the goods are transported in export or re-export mode, Yuri Kovalev, a member of the board of the Guild of Foreign Economic Activity Professionals Hermes, told Interfax.

According to Kovalev, the details of what actually happened with the registration of declarations with Russian transit cargo at Turkish customs will be clarified no earlier than next week, official information on restrictions has not been received. It is possible that we are talking about reconfiguring and updating the declaration processing system on the Turkish customs website related to the EU NCTS (New computerized Transit system) system, which Turkey has been using since 2012, the expert believes.

Possible restrictions may affect all types of transport, including aviation, but most often transit cargo goes by road, Kovalev noted. Turkish Airlines has previously refused transportation to Russia for various reasons, he added.

According to an Interfax source in the port of Novorossiysk, cargo in containers with transshipment in Turkey is still going without restrictions. "We don't see any delays," the agency interlocutor said. According to him, refuels (fruits/vegetables) also transit through Turkey, which are delivered by ferries to Novorossiysk. "These cargoes are processed and shipped without delay," the source said.

"According to our data, there are no restrictions on transit shipments so far," another source in the market noted, adding that at the same time, some sea lines transporting cargo to Turkey began to require confirmation of the destination of the cargo.

According to Georgy Vlastopulo, CEO of Optimalog logistics company, ACEX partner, at the moment the system blocks the registration of declarations for air transportation: it is not possible to issue a declaration for cargo that is located at terminals at airports. The system blocks registration if Russia is specified as the destination country.

It is possible to issue a declaration at truck terminals, Vlastopulo noted, but only if the goods are placed under the TIR procedure (Carnet TIR): only in this case it will be possible to arrange transit. At some cargo terminals, transit is processed even with the indication of Russia as the destination country.

"We don't know exactly what happened and when everything will work again, how it worked. You can't say 100% that this is just a technical glitch, and you can't say that this is a political decision. Both can take place," Miroslav Zolotarev, head of ACEX Group, commented to Interfax.

"It is quite possible that the difficulties with the registration of goods subject to parallel imports originating from EU countries will increase if Turkey, like many other countries bordering Russia, refuses to register goods that are subject to export restrictions from the EU to Russia. In the long term, the situation can unfold in any direction, and as a solution, we can look at the transit potential of other countries, for example, the Persian Gulf countries such as Bahrain or Oman," Zolotarev believes.

Source https://www.interfax.ru/