Gulf | Saudi Arabia
Saudis and UAE reach agreement on ending truck crisis
The truck crisis has ended with the UAE and Saudi Arabia reaching an agreement to ease queues at the border points of Al Ghuwaifat and Al Bat'ha.
- By Abdullah Rasheed, Abu Dhabi Editor
- Published: 23:51 June 15, 2009
- Authorities say many of the drivers do not have complete official documents related to their trucks and the goods they carry.
- Image Credit: Gulf News
Riyadh: The truck crisis has ended with the UAE and Saudi Arabia reaching an agreement to ease queues at the border points of Al Ghuwaifat and Al Bat'ha.
Read in-depth on border chaos
The agreement followed a meeting in Riyadh yesterday at the Saudi Customs Authority between a UAE delegation headed by Mohammad Khalifa Bin Fahd Al Muhairi, Director General of the Federal Customs Authority, and a delegation representing the Saudi Customs Authority and Interior Ministry.
The Saudi authorities undertook to end the crisis resulting from implementing new customs and security procedures at the Al Bat'ha checkpoint and restore the situation to what it was two weeks ago before the crisis erupted.
A technical committee was set up by both parties that included representatives from various departments in both countries.
The committee will hold its first meeting on June 20 and 21 to agree on the final mechanism for solving the border crisis.
Gulf News has learnt that the Saudi authorities issued instructions yesterday to open the Al Bat'ha checkpoint and facilitate the entry of trucks.
"The Saudi side focused on security issues and expressed fear of increasing smuggling operations of banned and illegal substances, fake and smuggled commodities and other goods which do not conform to GCC specifications," Al Muhairi said.
One of the reasons behind the delay was a new security control system as well as an iris scan system which the Saudi immigration was not trained to handle.
Saudi Arabia is demanding that all customs duties for commodities bought by Saudi traders from the UAE market should be levied at the UAE-Saudi check points not at UAE customs departments. The GCC unified customs agreement, which regulates the movement of commodities between GCC countries, stipulates that customs duties should be collected in the countries from where commodities are exported to other GCC countries.
Saudi sources told Gulf News that the Saudi side raised the issue of implementing a decision issued by the kingdom a month ago, which bans the entry of used cars older than five years.
Saudi Customs insist on the ban of used vehicles manufactured before 2004, while the UAE side calls for postponing the decision's implementation to avoid causing damage to traders who bought cars before the issuance of this decision and to enable them to adjust their status.
Your comments
Poor truck drivers are paying the price! And what a time, the heat is at its peak.. I feel sorry for the plight of these men. I hope it is resolved soon
Beena
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: June 16, 2009, 11:59
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