10:59, 10 июня 2020, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Darya PODOLSKAYA
Economic confrontation with Kazakhstan continues. The Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan made a statement in which it recalled: the heads of the EAEU member states called for maintaining the principle of freedom of movement of goods, including socially significant goods and food products.
However, the measures taken by the Kazakh side do not comply with the statement of the EAEU Heads of State.
As the results of an on-site meeting held on June 3 at Ak-Tilek-Avtodorozhny and Karasu checkpoints with participation of representatives of the delegations of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Kazakhstan showed, passage of vehicles by Kyrgyzstan is three times faster.
The downtime at the border, according to drivers, at the entrance to the Republic of Kazakhstan is from three to four days.
During the meeting, the Kazakh side admitted that the accumulation of heavy trucks was their fault.
By the way, the decision to close five out of seven checkpoints was made unilaterally by Kazakhstan.
In general, passage through the checkpoints on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border from March to May decreased 2.5 times.
It is obvious that the Kazakh side, under the guise of combating shadow trade, deliberately blocks Kyrgyz exports.
Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan
The ministry said that as of today, more than 2,000 fake entrepreneurs, who imported goods from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan in violation of trade rules, are wanted.
«It should be noted that the Kazakh side in February of this year announced that 90 percent of the goods coming from the territory of Kyrgyzstan are imported with inappropriate documents. Despite a request for details of each detected case, no information has been provided by the Kazakhstan side,» the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic said.
There was also not a single fact of export control violations regarding transportation of chemicals, explosives, X-ray machines, natural uranium, ammunition for military-style weapons from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan without a permission.
According to the State Border Service of Kyrgyzstan, there have been no violations since 2017.
In addition, the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic notes the inaccuracy of Kazakhstan’s statistics, which shows differences in mutual trade between the two countries 10 times.
According to official statistics of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Eurasian Commission, exports of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan reached $ 337.5 million in 2019.
And according to the Committee on Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan’s imports from Kyrgyzstan in 2019 amounted to $ 251.9 million. The discrepancy in favor of the Kyrgyz Republic is $ 85.6 million.
Recall, Kazakhstan has tightened control on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border at the end of May. As a result, over 300 heavy trucks have accumulated on the Kyrgyz side of the state border for several days, which were heading for the EAEU market with goods.