The authorities of the Kaliningrad region are preparing a lawsuit against the Lithuanian government in the World Trade Organization: neighbors illegally restrict transit. The governor of the region Anton Alikhanov told about this on the air of the program “Newson Tuesday, December 13th.
“We believe that the basic principles have been violated, in addition to the obligations of the Baltic States upon accession to the EU and, in fact, the EU obligations not to violate the freedom of transit, both freight and passenger. We see this violation already in practice. They have obligations under the World Trade Organization, and they violate them. We believe that there is a very good basis for suing them, demanding compensation or, if they do not lift these restrictions, introduce some measures of their own. Completely, shall we say, legally, on all grounds,” said the head of the region.
As the governor explained, the Kaliningrad region incurred large expenses due to the transition to shipping by sea. Calculations are being prepared for the WTO claim, which will be sent to the RF Ministry of Economic Development.
Anton Alikhanov noted that “the volume of transit has seriously decreased”: “Over the past period, we transported about 58-60 percent of the volume that we saw last year.”
The government of the region believes that the matter is not in the decline in production or consumption.
“Many shippers and consignees do not want to take risks and get involved with the Lithuanian side, and many simply focus on the port capabilities of St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region and carry everything across the sea,” the governor added.
The authorities of the region fear that Lithuania will begin to reduce quotas for railway transportation of goods.
“It is important to maintain this balance in order not to completely leave the railway component, because it is very important to preserve it. The railway is a very large employer in the region, and we would really like them to have a job, to be loaded,” Alikhanov shared.