Lang Son Province recommends localities temporarily suspend goods transportation to border gates

More than 2,800 vehicles stuck at border gate areas

On January 4, the People's Committee of Lang Son Province asked centrally-run localities for coordination to solve the backlog of goods-carrying trucks at border gates, recommending a suspension of goods transportation to the border gates of the province.

As China is tightening the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in border cities, Chinese authorities have announced that they plan to suspend the import of refrigerated goods during the Lunar New Year 2022. The suspension lasts 14 days before and 14 days after the celebration of the lunar new year.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lang Son province’s authorities currently only clears imported/ exported goods at three border gates.

As of January 2, 2022, the total number of vehicles stuck at the three border gates of Huu Nghi, Tan Thanh, and Chi Ma was 2,852, of that, 1,717 trucks reportedly carry fruits including jackfruit, mango, dragon fruit and watermelon), mainly at Tan Thanh and Huu Nghi border gates. Meanwhile, customs clearance for export is mostly done at two border gates of Huu Nghi and Chi Ma which can carry out clearance procedures for respectively about 60-70 vehicles and 20-30 vehicles per day.

Around the border gate areas, grounds for trucks to park and wait are now overloaded. Prolonged waiting time for customs clearance increases costs and difficulties for disease prevention and control, security, traffic safety, and especially the environmental sanitation and living conditions for long-distance drivers. Many trucks had to return to have fruits preserved and sold domestically.

However, products from central and southern localities such as Long An, Tien Giang, An Giang, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh continue to be transported to the border gates of Lang Son province and wait for export.

To assist functional forces of Lang Son province to tackle a huge amount of backlog of vehicles and goods and avoid adding pressure on current storage infrastructure, COVID-19 prevention and control as well as reduce risks and damage to people and businesses, the People's Committee of Lang Son province suggested that the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities advise organisations, businesses, producers, exporters and transportation service providers temporarily suspend goods transportation to the local border gates for export to China, especially at a time when some border gates of the province such as Tan Thanh, Coc Nam have not been resumed customs clearance and the customs clearance capacity at current border gates have not been improved.

Localities were also asked to proactively adjust production plans and export business to ensure efficiency. They were recommended to choose other appropriate ways such as sea and railway to reduce pressure for road transportation.

Producers were suggested to strengthen solutions for fruit preservation and processing as well as conduct trade promotion activities to boost domestic consumption and expand export markets.

When the clearance capacity at the northern border gates has been improved, the situation of congestion has been resolved, and several agricultural export border gates are reopened, the People's Committee of Lang Son province proposed other localities, especially those with large agricultural and fruit growing areas to direct all levels to closely follow the information on export activities at border gates so that they could timely consult and guide enterprises, production and export establishments, freight transport service providers. The move is expected to regulate export goods reasonably, avoiding massive congestion at the border gates.

It is also necessary to actively master regulations on standards, quality, COVID-19 prevention and control of China so that Vietnamese products could be eligible to enter the country. 

The People's Committee of Lang Son province will continue to synchronously implement solutions and talk with the authorities of China’s Guangxi to soon restore customs clearance at some border gates.