Panama blocks Nicaragua, Honduras trucks

In a Tit for Tat move Panama has imposed temporary trade restrictions on Honduras and Nicaragua truckers

Decrees issued on February 18 and 19 deal with blockades in the lifting of cargo in the fiscal warehouses, free zones, and ports located in Panama to international transit carriers of the two countries.

The measures came after the Panamanian Executive evaluated the situation because local transporters complained about the treatment they received in Honduras and Nicaragua, said a spokesman for the National Customs Authority (ANA) spokesman.

On, 80 truckers from the Unitary Cargo Transportation group held a protest in Paso Canoas, a border area between Costa Rica and Panama that houses a customs post, to oppose truckers from other nations in the region carrying merchandise inside. of the local territory.

This union demanded compliance with Law 51 of 2017 that regulates cargo cabotage, which establishes that only vehicles with Panamanian registration are authorized to transport merchandise or materials.

They requested meetings with that the authorities of the ANA, the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (Mici) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The customs entity said that since 2002, the General Directorate of Customs Services of Nicaragua issued an instruction through a Technical Circular to administrators and Customs delegates in the country to prohibit the lifting of cargo to Panamanian transporters.

On January 30, 2019, the Secretary of State in the Economic Development Office of Honduras instructed the Deputy Directorate of Customs Revenue not to process or accept customs declarations of international transit, in reference to those of Panama reports TVN Noticias