From August 8, Estonia will introduce full customs control on the border with Russia. In practice, this means a thorough inspection of each person and their luggage. Announcing the measures, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna explained that Estonia is “doing everything” to help Ukraine with such steps in “raising the price” of confrontation for Russia.
However, Estonians are making their own lives more difficult by doing so. The innovation will create queues at the border, significantly increase the burden on the Estonian customs service and could potentially change transit routes passing through Estonia, Oleg Ivanov, senior lecturer at the International Business Department of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, explained in a conversation with RG.
According to Ivanov, Estonia currently uses a standard risk management system that automatically identifies which consignments of goods should be inspected and examined. The main concerns in Tallinn are related to transit goods that pass through Estonia and are supposed to transit to third countries via Russia. According to the Estonian side, the goods do not transit through Russia, but are initially sent to Russia with incorrect information in the accompanying documents, which is done to circumvent sanctions restrictions on a number of product groups.
“It is likely that their automatic, risk-based control system is not capable of recognizing such cargo, which is why “full customs control” is being introduced. Its introduction will create queues at the border, significantly increase the workload of the Estonian customs service and may eventually change the transit routes passing through Estonia,” the expert believes.
Also, in his opinion, one of the possible reasons for the strengthening of control may be problems in the CIS (Customs Information System) and NCTS (New Computerised Transit System) information systems, in which the EU and Russia exchange information on transit cargo flows, which does not allow Estonia to set up its risk management system. In particular, Ivanov recalled that the introduction of the fifth version of NCTS was postponed from autumn 2023 to July 1, 2024, since not all participants had time to prepare for the update.
At the same time, regarding the trade turnover between Russia and Estonia, the expert noted that from February 2022 to February 2024, the supply of medicines and medical equipment, which are mainly in transit, has increased significantly. If in 2021 such supplies amounted to approximately 5.6 tons, then in 2022 – 1190 tons, and in 2023 – almost 3400 tons, Ivanov concluded.
Nina Egorsheva / Rossiyskaya Gazeta
