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BORDER NEWS * Russia's economy booms, and cargo traffic piles up at Finnish border
Vaalimaa is Finland's busiest border crossing to Russia, dealing with 700 to 800 trucks a dayVaalimaa,Finland -Reuters/International Herald Tribune (France), by Terhi Kinnunen -October 10, 2007: -- ... Russia's economy is booming, and its hunger for new cars, televisions and machinery means that the transit routes through Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are clogged with trucks... Because of this heavy trans-border traffic, Finland is now as large a trading partner for Russia as is the United States, but customs posts on the border are struggling to cope. Two weeks ago truckers was 48 hours waiting to get back home. Last winter, the lines stretched for more than 60 kilometers... Russians prefer to import goods through Finland to minimize theft and because Russian harbors near St. Petersburg do not have enough unloading equipment or warehouses... The amount of goods imported through Finland has doubled since 2002 to about three million tons in 2006, and the Russian Transport Ministry acknowledges that its officials cannot handle the growing number of vehicles... Latvia has lines of 700 to 1,000 trucks regularly waiting at the two main crossing points to Russia, and processing takes 60 to 72 hours... Last month trucks stood in a line for more than a week in Estonia... Mika Poutiainen, head of Finnish customs at Vaalimaa, said that an electronic customs declaration would put an end to the lines... (Photo by Ints Kalnins/Reuters - Trucks waiting at a border checkpoint from Latvia into Russia. Finland has an even busier border crossing into Russia)
Labels: border news
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