Only 12 cars passed the border of Kyrgyzstan with Kazakhstan in a day: huge traffic jams

Among the reasons – competition for the Russian market

Heavy trucks have accumulated on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border. Problems with the pass began on August 20, only 12 cars crossed the border during the day. The lines stretched for several kilometers. Political scientist Denis Berdakov, the author of the Berdakov Online channel, told MK what the long-standing border problems between the two countries are connected with.

Igor Golubev, Deputy Chairman of the Association of International Freight Carriers of Kyrgyzstan, left for the Ak-Tilek checkpoint. According to him, now only one car passes through the checkpoint per hour. Although its throughput is 20 cars per hour. More than 350 cars are waiting for their turn.

“The same situation is observed at other checkpoints. The Kazakh side does not explain the reasons for the delay. I am now at the Ak-Tilek checkpoint together with Deputy Minister of Economy and Commerce Nazarbek Malayev. We are trying to figure out the cause. I believe that the Kazakh side by such actions violates the principle of the Eurasian Economic Union on the free movement of goods. In addition, they undermine the authority of the EAEU,” said Igor Golubev.

As Denis Berdakov told MK, problems on the border between the two countries arise regularly: once every two to three months. “Sometimes the passage takes two days, it happens that the trucks stop for five or six days. It cannot be said that there is a complete blocking of borders. This has definitely not happened since 2010,” the expert says.

According to him, there are objective and subjective reasons for this situation. The first includes the sanitary inspection of Kyrgyz products: “Often this occurs in the autumn period and the end of August. Identify problems with agricultural products: carrots, watermelons and so on. For example, in vegetables there may be some kind of bugs and the like.

Another point Berdakov points to is Astana’s desire to collect more taxes. “The government of Kazakhstan understands that a number of goods that follow from China to Russia through Kyrgyzstan settle in Kazakhstan without paying 13% VAT. From one truck, the Kazakh customs can receive up to $100,000, if we are talking about equipment. Accordingly, they begin to very carefully check all the goods and identify a lot of violations. Conditionally: it says “potatoes”, and for some reason half of the products are clothes.”

In addition, the inspection of the customs officers themselves can be arranged by higher authorities, and then each truck is also checked. There is not enough bandwidth and the queues stretch for kilometers, the newspaper’s interlocutor notes.

However, there are also internal problems between the countries. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan compete for access to the Russian market. For various reasons, it is somewhat cheaper to transport Chinese goods to Russia from Bishkek than from Kazakhstan. What Astana is not very happy about.