OREANDA-NEWS. Minsk has suggested a solution how to resolve the problem of transit of embargoed goods across Belarus and the territory of Russia, Chairman of Belarus' State Customs Committee (SCC) Yuri Senko told a press-conference on December 3.

In his words, during the negotiations that began in early November, the united board of the Customs Committee of the Union State of Belarus and Russia prepared and forwarded to the Russian Federation a draft resolution with a proposed solution of the problem of the transit of embargoed goods.

Belarus suggests taking care of the tracking of automobile and railway transport in its territory to secure the delivery of transit goods to Russia. Once the goods are surrendered to the Russian authorities, it will be up to Russia to ensure the delivery of merchandise to Kazakhstan or third countries, Senko explained.

Moscow's reply to the Belarusian proposal was that the practice of customs escort of goods is not available in Russia. In turn, Minsk expects the Russian authorities to finally make up their mind regarding this issue, Senko said.

In his words, Belarus' customs service has been monitoring the transit and supplies of embargoed goods, Senko said. Foodstuffs subject to the Russian import embargo can be legally imported by Belarusian manufacturers and then exported to Russia after reprocessing. According to Senko, Belarusian customs officers keep the situation under control. Over the last five days they prevented two attempts of unlawful supplies of embargoed goods to Russia, he said. In the meantime, during that period Russia has intercepted 18 vehicles with 300 tonnes of cargoes, which did not have property phytosanitary and veterinary certificates.