transportation

Truckers continue to block border

Canatraca members have blocked cargo from crossing into Costa Rica for the past 2 days.

LA PRENSA

Traffic jammed:Trucks wait to cross the border at Paso Canoa.1054752

For the second consecutive day, truck drivers blocked the border crossing at Paso Canoa to protest high fuel prices and foreign competition.

While passenger traffic is being allowed to cross the border, the truckers are preventing cargo from being transported into Costa Rica. There were about 150 trucks parked along the road as of Sunday afternoon.

The strike began Saturday and is expected to continue until the government agrees to meet with members of the Cámara Nacional de Transporte de Carga (Canatraca), which is organizing the strike.

Canatraca President Manuel Mora said the union has set a meeting for Tuesday with Ministra de Comercio Gisela Vergara, as well as authorities from Customs, Immigration, the Ministerios de Trabajo y Desarrollo Laboral and Gobierno y Justicia and the Zona Libre de Colón.

That meeting will include Canatraca officials as well as representatives of truck drivers in Cerro Punta.

Mora said the primary issue that will be discussed at the meeting is the high cost of fuel, and in particular, diesel. Fuel prices have increased steadily all year as the price of crude oil has risen to almost $150 a barrel.

Canatraca is also seeking a government measure that would prohibit foreign truck drivers from entering the country to pick up a load for transport outside the country. Mora said that this practice has hurt Panamanian truck drivers.

That request is the reason that officials from the Zona Libre de Colón will be involved in the discussion, as goods from there are the ones most likely to be transported by foreign truck drivers.

It is not clear whether the government would have the ability to prevent foreign truck drivers from operating within the country, as that measure might violate international trade agreements.

A truck driver from Costa Rica said that it is time that authorities solve the problem because the strike has cost him a lot of time.