Russian and Belarusian trucks are banned from entering the EU from Belarus and Russia

States of the European Union have stopped letting heavy vehicles with Belarusian and Russian license plates into their territory. According to the truckers, at the moment only transit trucks going to Kaliningrad, as well as cars with food and medicines, can go through the border crossings of Belarus with the EU countries.All the trucks with Russian and Belarusian license plates, which had already been loaded and even cleared by customs, were turned back. Usually, before, in such circumstances, both Lukashenko and Putin immediately responded symmetrically, banning the entry into their territory of the same trucks, but with the numbers of the European Union. All the time, but not now. Because this would cause a collapse of exports and imports to these countries. In some cases of critical importance. So at the moment, the EU vans go to Russia and Belarus unhindered. But Russian and Belarusian carriers are standing by. The fifth package of the EU sanctions against Russia and Belarus has affected international road transport. Last Saturday, our country's trucks with Belarusian and Russian license plates were not allowed into the EU. Transit was also affected by restrictions. Following the introduction of sanctions against truckers traffic on the border of our country with the EU has decreased by three times. Experts predict serious losses in foreign trade for Belarus because of these restrictions. We talked to the carriers and found out what they think about what is happening and how they will work further. Andrei (name changed - Editor's note) lives in the district center in Vitebsk region, and for the last ten years he has been engaged in trucking. His firm is one of those that are called "micro" in the transport sector - it has only three trucks with towed equipment. However, the Belarusian has another company in Latvia with six trucks with European license plates; he opened it only two years ago. In this situation, it is a salvation for him, because the cars with EU registration go through the border freely. - My Belarusian cars traveled all over Europe, I had regular drivers, established contacts with customers. But it's unclear how we will work after the new sanctions are introduced. During the last day, I received a phone call from 20-30 people with whom I interacted at work, all of whom had the same question: "What are we going to do? Our government, the Ministry of Transport, BAMAP are silent on this matter," said the man. Andrei's company was one of the first to feel the EU sanctions: last Saturday, their car, which was loaded with cable on its way from Belarus to Germany, was reversed at the Latvian checkpoint "Paternieki" (neighboring checkpoint "Grigorovshchina"). The driver told the director that the truck had already been cleared and was ready to leave, but "a new shift came and turned away the Russian and Belarusian cars with an explanation that the EU sanctions had begun to apply and entry was prohibited. This car is about to return to base. What to do with the customer's cargo, the director has not decided yet. Perhaps, the truck will be unloaded and the goods returned, or there is another option - to hook the semi-trailer to the "head" with a European license plate - it will be allowed through the border. - These sanctions threw the Russian and Belarusian vehicle fleet out of the transportation market. Twenty thousand cars that used to go to Western Europe are too many for the domestic market of Belarus. Of course, there is the territory of the Customs Union but the rates on transportation to Russia are very low and the profitability of a trip is only three to five percent. By comparison, the profitability of flights to Europe was up to thirty percent, depending on conditions of transportation, - said Andrew. The fact that two trucks in the company of the Byelorussian were taken on credit and still have 70 thousand euros to pay for them adds more difficulties. Andrei says that there is no free money, it is invested in the turnover of the company. The man explains that such a situation is in many domestic carriers. - All road carriers are still waiting for developments. I hope Belarus won't decide to ban to deliver the cars from Europe to our country as a reciprocal move. After all, then all exports would stop. It's not even a shot in the leg, but much higher. Andrei believes that if the current conditions persist, the emphasis in international road transport will shift to vehicles registered in Europe. The situation will become more complicated if Russia stops allowing European trucks to enter its territory, but there is a way out even here. - It would look as follows: a European truck comes into Belarus, the goods go through customs clearance, then a semi-trailer is hooked to the Belarusian car, and it takes it to Russia. "It's not a blow to Russia, but to ordinary people." Alina's firm (name changed - Ed. note) has 15 trucks with Belarusian registration. It's a family business, started by her parents, the girl gradually got used to the business, and now runs the company on her own. The haulier has some brand-new cars; they were taken on credit last year. The money on it has to be repaid monthly, and the contract does not provide for delays in payments. - I don't know how the EU went along with such sanctions, because they are aimed not against Russia, but against us - small and medium carriers, as well as people who work for us", the entrepreneur believes. - It feels as if these sanctions were lobbied by Polish and Lithuanian hauliers in order to remove competitors, a kind of blow to the weak. Because Russia is not suffering - two weeks ago it redirected transport flows by rail, the goods go through Turkey, Georgia. The woman says that not only business owners are worried about the situation, but also hired workers - many have families, children, debts on loans and installments, some other obligations. - Not all drivers want to go to Europe to work. It's clear that they are just guest workers, exploited there, they need to sleep in the cabs. So far, European trucking firms haven't had enough truck drivers, but if an influx of Belarusians goes there, there will be an oversupply of drivers," says Alina. According to her, to prevent the entry of prohibited goods into the Russian Federation one should have only prohibited export declarations for export of products. But since they are there (although it has become much more difficult to obtain them), the traffic will continue. - The Lithuanians and Poles will speculate on the goods, and they will still get into Russia. Perhaps they will turn their noses up at first, say they won't go, and when the stakes are cosmic, they will move forward. For sure, there will be transshipment and transshipment of cargo somewhere near the border. Now the woman focuses on waiting for her transport from Europe - according to the sanctions it has to leave the EU until April 16, but there are doubts whether the drivers will have time to do it, because, according to Alina, the queue in the direction of Belarus is growing. Recall that truckers, who had been in the EU before April 9, are allowed to deliver the goods they are already carrying and return to the territory of Belarus by April 16. - What to do next - I do not know yet. Bankruptcy is the most pessimistic option. We will probably explore other options. It's a complicated business - you can't sell cars to anyone now, it's not IT when you pack a suitcase and go to any country. The entrepreneur believes that there should be sanctions, but not those that were adopted last and affected the interests of carriers. She adds that she herself is against the war in Ukraine (she has relatives living there, for whom she is very worried and worried) and condemns the actions of Russia. "We will travel in Russia, but we will lose our wages." What Drivers Say. Several Belarusian trucking firms reported that they intend to register companies in Poland and Kazakhstan in order to continue their work. One company informed me that they intend to sell some of the trucks, while the rest will try to work in new directions - Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkey. As for the international drivers, many of them are in "waiting mode" and hope that their managers will find a way out of the situation. For example, Nikolai, a resident of Brest region, who was one of the first to be turned back to Belarus at the Lithuanian checkpoint "Šalčininkai" on April 9, thinks so. The man was carrying lumber to Germany. - The Lithuanians let us through to the last minute. I had already checked in on the Belarusian side and drove up to the barrier on the Lithuanian side, but they lowered it in front of me. We waited until 1.30, and then the shift supervisor came out and said they couldn't let us through - sanctions, - said the man. The driver went back to Belarus. The firm has ordered to park the truck and not to unload it yet. Nikolai and his colleagues are home until Wednesday. Then there will be a meeting in the company, where the leadership will announce how they'll work further. - We were offered to travel around Russia in the direction of Murmansk, Kazakhstan, and China. We will lose about 30 percent in wages. Of course, this is bad, but I do not want to go to Europe for work permits - it is hard not to see my relatives for two or three months, - says Mykola. According to the truck driver, his colleagues are discussing what they will do if they can no longer go to Europe by truck: many want to stay in Belarus, but move to domestic firms. Some want to join car fleets and cabs, some want to work with trucks. "Fraught with big problems for the economy." Experts - about the impact on cargo transportation Belarusian economy is highly dependent on the export of services. - The fact is that foreign trade in goods for Belarus has traditionally been negative. Due to the large volume of oil and gas purchases from Russia and other factors, Belarus sells less goods for export than it buys from abroad itself in value terms," say the experts of the project "Kosht Urada. - Negative balance of foreign trade in goods is usually several billion dollars per year. In 2021, thanks to the "export miracle," Belarus will have traded in deficit of "only" $0.8 billion - one can say that it is a success. Analysts point out that the situation in foreign trade is saved by the service sector, where exports exceed imports and this excess allows to fully block the negative balance of trade in goods. - Export of services is one of the few spheres where the natural benefits of the Belarusian economy, namely its geographic position, have been realized. Now the new restrictions deprive the country even of this seemingly obvious and inviolable advantage. Meanwhile, transportation services accounted for 43% of the total export of services from Belarus in 2021. This is more than $4 billion of foreign exchange earnings, the experts specify. By the way, the second most important area of the export of services is IT (about 29% of total exports of services in 2021, or about $3 billion). - It turns out that the mainstay of Belarusian foreign trade is services exports, while the mainstay of services exports is transportation services and IT. And both of these spheres are likely to bring much less currency to the economy. The IT-sector has not yet fallen under sanctions directly, but is slowly being eliminated on its own, as the Belarusian jurisdiction has become so toxic that no benefits will save it, experts predict. - At the same time, the negative balance of foreign trade in goods won't disappear so easily. Such trends in foreign trade are fraught with great problems for the economy as a whole and the ruble rate in particular.