Renewed Congestion at Vietnam–China Border: 2,000 Trucks Await Clearance

According to Vietnamese media reports, 300–400 container trucks are flooding into Vietnam’s Lang Son province every day, causing renewed congestion at some border crossings.

Fruits currently shipped through Lang Son province include mangos, dragon fruit and lychees from Vietnam, as well as other fruits imported from Thailand for re-export to China. The Friendship Pass and Tan Thanh–Xinqing border crossings can currently process up to 200 trucks per day, while the number of vehicles pouring into Lang Son province each day has been in excess of 300. By the first week of June, almost 2,000 fruit container trucks were stranded at the border awaiting clearance.

In February, the “Digital Port” platform was launched in Lang Son province. Since then, both import and export companies and customs agents have been required to file online customs declarations before vehicles transporting outbound goods arrive at the Friendship Pass or Tan Thanh–Xinqing crossings, in place of the usual paper declarations. Some Vietnamese sources have claimed that the deployed digital platform is unstable, which has affected the efficiency of customs clearance.

In addition, recent heavy rains in northern Vietnam have flooded some parking areas, limiting the number of available parking spaces. A large number of trucks unable to enter the parking lots are now parked up in the open along National Route 1A, causing yet more traffic disruption.

The local government has requested that the Lang Son Provincial People’s Committee increases the parking area to allow waiting vehicles to approach the border crossing in an orderly manner. For the time being, however, exporters, traders and shippers have been advised to consider delaying their shipments to China through Lang Son province.

Image: Pexels

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.