Polish truckers block Belarus border crossing to protest unfair competition

May 10, BPN. Dozens of Polish trucks blocked the exit towards Belarus at the Kukuryki border crossing on May 9, protesting the takeover of the trucking market by Belarusian and Russian companies, Radio Lublin reported.

The increased presence of Belarusian companies is harming the Polish transport industry, truckers say. These companies are reportedly more competitive because they can transport cargos to Russia, while Polish companies cannot.

In 2022, people from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia registered about 2,000 transport companies in Poland with a total fleet of 5,000 trucks, according to protesters. Belarusian companies reportedly outprice their EU rivals, robbing local carriers of work, both in the European Union and Eastern Europe.

Authorities should prohibit Belarusian and Russian semi-trailers from entering Poland, truckers’ spokesperson Kazimierz Błażejczyk told Radio Lublin. He linked the problem to “leaky sanctions” imposed by the European Union on Russia.

Currently, protesters are letting through one Belarus-bound truck per hour while the movement of trucks from Belarus to Poland is not obstructed. Truckers warn that they would block both directions as well as a border crossing to Lithuania used by Belarusian and Russian carriers.

On March 23, Polish trucking companies called for a ban on the registration of Russian- and Belarusian-owned transport companies in Poland.

In April 2022, the EU banned the entry and transit of trucks operated by Russian and Belarusian transport companies as a part of the fifth package of sanctions against Russia over its war with Ukraine.

In response, Belarusian authorities banned EU-registered vehicles and heavy haulers from crossing the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union into Belarus. The ban does not apply to vehicles passing through 14 border customs clearance checkpoints and “waiting zones” for cargo operations.

New problems with cargo traffic on the Polish-Belarusian border emerged in early February after Belarus sentenced journalist Andrej Pačobut, of the embattled Union of Poles, to eight years in prison on charges widely regarded as politically motivated. Poland closed the key Bobrowniki road checkpoint, and Belarus restricted traffic for Polish lorries and tractor trucks to the Polish section of the border.

Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński made the reopening of the checkpoint conditional on Pačobut’s release.