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MINSK, 23 October (BelTA) – Belarus’ Transport and Communications Ministry would like to switch to permits-free system for road freight in the Eurasian Economic Union by 2025, Belarus’ Transport and Communications Minister Anatoly Sivak said at a press conference in BelTA’s press center on 23 October.

According to the agreement signed by the EAEU member states, such permits will not be needed as from 2025. “We would like this agreement to become reality by 2025. It would be great if this happens even earlier,” Anatoly Sivak said.

When asked about the progress in the negotiations with the Russian Federation to increase quotas for Belarusian carriers, the minister said that the negotiation process “is regular, I can say, quarterly-based.” The parties met the last time on 1 October. “We agreed so far that we will define the criteria to calculate the required number of permits. The Russian colleagues want these criteria to allow to either increase the number of quotas or reduce them. There is no such interest on our part. But this is the position of the Russian side,” Anatoly Sivak said.

The parties will revisit this topic in late November, during the Transport Week in Moscow.

According to the minister, Belarusian carriers have 75,000 permits issued by Russia. This is not the highest number (123,000 in 2013) but not the lowest (55,000 some six years ago). In addition, Belarusian carriers have been issued 730,000 permits by 46 countries this year.