Dutch donate 2 top quality container scanners to boost Palestinian trade
2012 03 02
- Details
THE Netherlands will supply two top quality container scanners to boost Israeli security and enhance Palestinian trade by ending cumbersome unloading and reloading of open palletised cargo for individual pallet scanning that increased costs and transit times.
The Dutch government said the scanners at the Allenby Bridge could increase the amount of trade flowing through the crossing by up to 33 per cent, something that will "help the Palestinian economy grow", Reuters reports.
Dutch Ambassador Caspar Veldkamp and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Dutch Major General Eitan Dangot, said the scanners would also safeguard Israel's security.
As it stands West Bank exports must be loaded into boxes on pallets, then placed on trucks. The trucks then go to the Allenby Bridge Crossing where each pallet is scanned by a pallet scanner, and then re-loaded onto Jordanian trucks waiting on the other side of the border.
These trucks then drive to the Jordanian Port of Aqaba where the pallets are unloaded again, the boxes of pitchers taken out and then re-packed into containers for export, greatly adding to costs and transit times.
New container scanners will allow product to be loaded in containers at factories, and without further inspection move to the ship, reducing damage, theft and exposure to weather.
Former British prime minister, and a Quartet envoy, Tony Blair, was instrumental in brokering the deal. He said the scanners at the Allenby Bridge could increase Palestinian trade by US$35.5 million a year, which would yield $10.4 million a year to the Palestinian Authority in taxes.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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