Lithuania decided to tighten the procedure for the transit of goods through Russia and Belarus

From July 3, the Lithuanian customs tightens the rules for the transit of a number of goods through Russia and Belarus, reported on the website of the department.

The new rules will require shippers to produce a manufacturer’s declaration. In this document, he will have to confirm that he knows the seller and buyer of his goods in a third country, indicating that the goods will not be resold or transferred to another transport during transit.

The customs noted that since the beginning of June, they have already been applying enhanced control measures, but statistics show the presence of parallel imports of some goods to the Russian Federation and Belarus.

Earlier in May, the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, said that the 11th package of sanctions may include a ban on the transit of a number of goods through Russia, as well as their export to some third countries. According to the EC, EU trade with some countries has grown sharply, with a discrepancy between the volumes of goods sent in transit through Russia and goods that end up in third countries.

How noted experts in the field of logistics and sanctions law interviewed by Vedomosti, it will be almost impossible to verify the implementation of such sanctions by European countries.

In mid-June 2022, Lithuania stopped letting Russian trucks with sanctioned goods through, and also suspended the transit of some cargo to the Kaliningrad region from the rest of the Russian Federation. According to the authorities of Kaliningrad, about 50% of transit came under restrictions. Transit between the Kaliningrad region and other regions of Russia was restored on July 22, 2022, however, some restrictions remain. At the end of August 2022, the Lithuanian customs announced the tightening of cargo control at the border with Russia.