"The two sides reached an understanding yesterday. There is hope that it will be possible to continue the negotiations, which will lead to a final agreement," Polish Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Jerzy Szmit said during a visit to Moscow. According to the CFTS portal, this was reported in the Polish media.
Agreements have been reached on establishment of a transition period that will last until 15 April. The two sides should reach a final agreement during this period.
The deputy minister described the negotiations with the Russian side as "very difficult." Poland wants to preserve the previous conditions, which allowed Polish entrepreneurs to operate normally on the Russian market. The rules that were introduced in Russia last year could result in 85 percent of Polish carriers being unable to travel to Russia. "We cannot agree with this," Szmit said.
As reported earlier, Russia and Poland failed to reach agreement on the volume of the trucking quota for this year, as a result of which trucking between the two countries was discontinued on 1 February. Initially, trucks from both countries were allowed to return to their countries of registration based on their old permits until 15 February. That period has now been extended by two months.
According to the the Association of International Road Carriers, the Polish side is dissatisfied with Russia’s adoption of laws and regulations on performance of international transport operations on Russian territory by foreign trucks, including transportation of goods belonging to third countries. Russia considers this accusation baseless. Several rounds of negotiations have been held.
The Polish-Russian dispute resulted in Russian trucks traveling to the European Union being diverted through other transit countries, including Ukraine. Subsequently, a dispute between Russia and Ukraine also resulted in the banning of transit cargo trucks.
