Mr. Ishai Sorek Director General of the bi-national Israel Jordan Chamber of Commerce called upon the government to take all necessary steps to prevent the blocking of the busy Jordan river border crossing between the two states.
The call was initiated after a group of local customs brokers sent a letter to the Israeli Airport Authority, which manages the crossing, complaining about the long delays at the border.
In their letter the brokers insisted that the Airport authority will put forward a medium and a long term program to avoid costly delays of cargo to and from Jordan.
Mr. Sorek warned that the present border crossing was originally planned for a small scale bilateral trade, however, due to a dramatic increase of the bilateral trade the government must embark upon a policy of widening the infrastructure to allow the Jordanians ship their industrial products to Europe and North America .
Mr. Sorek added that the present crossing is not only highly essential to the bilateral relations of the two countries but also acts as the main transport route through which 30% of the Jordanian export moves. Some us$150 millions worth of goods traded between Israel and Jordan, move through the crossing and any delay will be harmful to the trade.
Figures made available for 2004 by Mr. Sorek show that the volume of trade has indeed jumped dramatically. In the first three months the number of trucks that crossed the border was up 91% compared to last years figures. The value of traded goods was up 41%. The forecast is that at the end of 2004 the number of trucks will reach 100-120 per day as compared to 55 per day in 2003.
