TEHRAN: Recent problems encountered at Turkish border crossings as well as customs issues have hindered the Turkish export market, said International Transporters Association (UND) Executive Board President Faith Şener at Gediz University in İzmir on Wednesday.
“There are problems at all of Turkey’s exit points,” Şener said. “We are going to great lengths to find a way through. Moreover, Iran and Austria in particular are obstructing us. They are not processing us through customs efficiently. While economic growth is tied to exports, exports are tied to logistics.”
He said Turkish trucks trying to cross the border into Iran from the Gürbulak border gate are required to wait four days as Iran is prioritizing the crossing of its own trucks. As such, shipments are arriving late and costs are increasing. Iran is a crucial entry point for Turkish trucks exporting goods to Central Asian countries.
He added that going through the Kapıkule border gate to Bulgaria — the most important entry point for Turkish trucks en route to Europe — is being hampered by extremely long lines and that truckers are lucky if they can get through it within three days.
Regarding Austria, Şener said that the country has imposed a limit on the number of Turkish trucks that can enter within a year, claiming that this is because Turkey is not an EU member state.
A crisis broke out last year over Iran and Turkey due to the high fees levied by Iran on Turkish trucks crossing into the country. At one point this resulted in hundreds of trucks from both Iran and Turkey stranded on either side of the border.
Conflicts in Iraq and Syria have also been detrimental to truckers, and in February it was reported that 500 Turkish truckers were stranded between the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and the northern cities of Iraq due to the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
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