WARSAW: Following a row that saw lorry traffic between Poland and Russia grind to a halt, officials from the two countries on Friday signed a deal on permits for hauliers that will be in force until the end of the year. The deal offers a way out of a deadlock in which each country denied entry to lorries from the other.
Friday’s agreement was signed in Gdańsk by Poland’s Deputy Infrastructure and Construction Minister Jerzy Szmit and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Transport, Nikolai Asaul, after two days of negotiations.
Under the deal, Polish carriers will receive 170,000 permits from Russia, including 30,000 for freight to and from “third countries” – for example, for goods transported from outside of Poland to Russia.
Russia will in return receive 170,000 permits from Poland, including 10,000 for transport to and from third countries. Earlier this year, lorry traffic between the two countries stopped amid a row. The authorities in Warsaw accused Moscow of cutting back on permits in order to eliminate foreign competition from the Russian market.
Politicians in Moscow blamed Poland for the stalemate, claiming that Warsaw wanted an excessive number of permits for travel through Russia. In February, Poland and Russia struck a temporary pact, each agreeing to each hand out 20,000 permits to the other. That deal expires on April 15.
