Lebanese Agriculture Minister Hassan al-Laqqis said on Tuesday that Damascus agreed to decrease the charges imposed on goods and trucks crossing its borders from Lebanon.
He made the announcement from Damascus after he met Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis.
He said the transit rate between the Gulf and Syria would soon decrease, praising the Syrian premier for his quick cooperation and directives to study the fees imposed by Syria at its border crossings.
Before the minister headed to Syria, Lebanese farmers and merchants sent him a list of demands, particularly related to the high charges at the border crossing between the two counties, which forced them to use the time-consuming maritime route for exporting goods.
Shafik Qassis, head of the Truck Drivers Union told Asharq Al-Awsat that the charges imposed on one truck crossing the Nassib border ranged between $300 and $350 three years ago.
“Now, it costs $1,650,” he said, adding that before the increase of fees, around 300 Lebanese trucks passed every day via the crossing.
“Now, there are only twelve,” Qassis said.
In October, the Syrian regime reopened the major Nassib border crossing with Jordan, three years after the trade route was captured and shut by opposition factions.
The closure severed an important daily transit route for hundreds of trucks transporting goods between Turkey and the Gulf, and Lebanon and the Gulf.
Lebanon’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade Hassan Murad said that in a comparison to 2010 and 2018, one could notice that the proportion of cross-border Lebanese goods dropped from 19 to 5 percent.
During the meeting Tuesday, Khamis announced an agreement to bolster cooperation between Beirut and Damascus in agriculture, trade, investment and reconstruction, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
He stressed the need to expand agricultural cooperation between Syria and Lebanon, as well as revive previous agreements and sign new ones.
For his part, Laqqis said the visit will help set a mutual vision for increasing agricultural and commercial cooperation, stressing the need to expand cooperation in the fields of economy and transport.
