transportation

Losses mount as blockade goes on

As the blockade at the

LA PRENSA

borderline: Some 150 truck drivers remain parked at the border with Costa Rica, in protest of fuel prices and foreign competition.1055279

Truck drivers continue to block the border crossing at Paso Canoa in protest of fuel prices and foreign competition, which has led to around $150,000 in economic losses during the last three days.

Manuel Mora, president of the Cámara Nacional de Transporte de Carga (Canatraca), who will meet this morning with the minister of Comercio e Industrias, Carmen Gisela Vergara, said they will come to an agreement today in order to lift the blockade. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. in the capital.

The guild seeks to institute a regulation prohibiting Central American truckers from entering Panama to pick up loads destined for markets outside the country.

Mora explained that the meeting is long overdue, since Canatraca first started asking the government to update regulations to protect truckers transporting Panamanian cargo 20 years ago.

“We don’t want to hurt Panamanian businessmen,” said Mora. “But the outcry from truck drivers carrying national goods has made that unavoidable.”

Mora complained about the increase in fuel prices and the lack of a digital security system to track international cargo. “If Costa Rica is protecting their goods, Panama can do the same for us,” he said. “But it needs to be in writing, not just in words, because trucks with goods from the Colón Free Zone keep passing on through to Central America.”

The Canatraca leader said the union will remain on strike if the government doesn't respond positively to their demands and indicated that the blockade measures are attracting other groups in the province of Colón and in Chiriquí highlands.

“We're going to exhaust the dialogue process, but if we don't get a positive response, we will definitely close the border because of high transportation and fuel costs,” he said. “And that will drastically affect the country’s economy. We hope truck drivers will get their due respect.”