Economic sanctions against Russia: Flemish ports already inspected 23.191 containers

Since the start of the economic sanctions against Russia, customs officers of the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge have already checked 23,191 containers. Three of them contained luxury goods, the trading of which constituted a violation of the sanctions. A thousand luxury cars are blocked.

The ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge play an important role in the follow-up of the sanctions against Russia. Since the measures were announced, in response to the war in Ukraine, customs officials have already checked 23,191 containers, the newspaper De Standaard reported on Tuesday. 

In three of these containers, luxury goods were found, the trading of which constituted a violation of the sanctions. In the port of Antwerp, 1,400 containers await further inspection, in Zeebrugge 1,100. The seaport of Zeebrugge is also an important transit port for cars, one where about 1,000 luxury cars are currently blocked. It concerns products that left the EU for our country before the sanctions, which were destined for Russian customers.

Also outside the ports, the sanctions against Russia are closely monitored. Belgium already blocked 196.4 billion euros worth of prohibited transactions and 2.7 billion euros worth of Russian assets were frozen in our country. “Belgium strictly applies the international sanctions in force", Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) said in De Standaard.

The frozen assets with a value of 2.7 billion euros are from 877 persons and 62 entities that are on the European sanctions list. The blocked transactions worth 196.4 billion euros are the result of other restrictions imposed by the European Union on Russia.

Today, Van Peteghem and his European colleagues are meeting in Luxembourg, to consider further sanctions against Russia. The Belgian Finance Minister will argue for an accelerated fifth sanctions package.

“For the Russian regime, it is clearly not enough to stop the brutal invasion and inhuman war scenes," Van Peteghem said. “That is why we must not waver and must push forward with a fifth package of sanctions. In the meantime, I call on all member states to follow up the measures very strictly.”

"The sanctions that have already been taken, as well as the speed with which they have been taken, are groundbreaking for the European Union," Professor of European Politics Hendrik Vos told VRTNWS. According to him, many countries are gradually getting ready to proceed to an oil boycott. "A gas boycott is still very sensitive, but for oil we would find alternatives," Vos explained. "There are more oil suppliers than Russia alone. So there are opportunities to get oil elsewhere in the world."

As Germany and Austria are not yet fully convinced, an imminent oil boycott might be postponed. But it is certainly not impossible that there will be one.

During his recent speech in de Belgian Federal Parliament, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy gave Belgium a dressing-down because of the continuing diamond trade. Nevertheless, our country is doing all but poorly when it comes to the follow-up of the economic sanctions against Russia. Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem confirmed that our country will never block a sanctions package on which there is European agreement, not even if it affects the diamond sector. However, "the impact of the sanctions must be greater on Russia than on the European Union or our country," Van Peteghem concludes.

© BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM: Illustration picture shows containers at the MSC PSA European Terminal (MPET) in the port of Antwerp, Wednesday 10 May 2017.