Since the end of March, when the European Commission first started compiling data from members of the European Union regarding different violations of sanctions, a total of 2 349 cargoes have been denied entry to Latvia and 1 383 sanction violations have been registered in the country, as reported by the State Revenue Service (VID).
1 238 possible sanction violations were discovered in Latvia by 31 July.
Sanction violation trends remained unchanged in August, VID representatives say. The majority of violations are related to the carrying of plastic goods, chemical substances and different tools for material processing, as well as laboratory equipment out of Latvia.
As for entry to Latvia, VID reports violations involving different types of freight, such as vehicles and spare parts, wood processing materials, paper and plastic goods, barbecue charcoal and vodka.
VID representatives also remind that EU sanctions imposed for imports and exports to and from Russia and Belarus are binding for companies and private persons.
During personal checks at border checkpoints, state border officials reports mostly violations involving goods under sanctions – alcohol (from Russia), fuel (from Belarus) and cigarettes (from Belarusian factories under sanctions).
As to how VID checks the origin of stone coal freight, since coal imports from Russia are banned, VID representatives explained that in order to check if Russian coal is imported to Latvia, customs can request additional information and documented evidence.
VID representatives reported that coal is mostly carried using the railway, and all transports are carried out using different interstate contracts. This means there are very precise requirements for bills of lading, which require the data about the sender, the sender’s railway station data, the carrier’s data, data regarding border railway stations and other information.
Considering all this, in practice it is difficult to forge bills of lading in a way to fake Russian coal as coal sent from Kazakhstan, for example.
In order to verify the origin of imported goods, customs officials are authorised to request any information that proves the origin of goods, including coal mining sites, VID representatives add.