Japanese used car

Vladivostok businessmen who import and trade used Japanese cars staged a protest on Tuesday against local customs officials who since April 1 have been issuing documentation for the imported vehicles with huge delays resulting in financial losses for the car dealers.

Having decorated their vehicles with orange ribbons and the slogan “Car dealers against bureaucracy”, the traders proceeded to the building of the Far Eastern Customs Department to show their dissatisfaction with the officials’ work.

Since April 1, two customs posts – Vladivostok Auto Transport and Vladivostok Central – were liquidated and a new customs post in Vladivostok Commercial Port was opened. The Far Eastern Customs officials intended to improve the work of the customs but the result turned out to be the opposite. Currently more than 9,000 vehicles imported from Japan are awaiting customs clearance in the port’s warehouse while the territory of the port is designed for only 6,500 vehicles.

“The customs workers are unable to cope with the amount of documentation and the computer programs in the new post give out errors,” head of trade union for Vladivostok car dealers Dmitry Penyaz said.READ MORE…