Anu Vehviläinen is the transport minister.

The Finnish hauliers' lobby on Monday joined Anu Vehviläinen, the transport minister, in rejecting a proposal by Russia's Federal Customs Service to shift most of the country's container shipping off the roads and onto the railways and vessels.

"It is rather impossible to shift container shipping onto the railways and ships given that nearly all of it is currently being shipped by road," said Antti Seppälä of Finnish Transport and Logistics (SKAL), an organisation that represents operators and companies that transport goods by road.

"It would certainly result in chaos, at least in the short term," he added, hinting that border officials at Russian ports and railway crossing would not be able to cope with the workload increase.

Russian Customs have proposed shipping containers in excess of 20 feet directly to Russian ports or by rail through neighbouring countries like Finland.

Ms Vehviläinen said the Russian proposal flew in the face of World Trade Organisation principles, adding she had written to her Russian opposite number, Igor Levitin, about the issue.

The Finnish transport minister had stressed earlier that the Russian transport ministry was against the Customs Service's proposal.
Although Finnish Railways (VR) also rejected the proposal as a market distortion, the government-owned rolling stock operator admitted that an increase in rail container shipping would be welcome in a recession.

"Of course everybody should play by the internationally established rules," said Matti Andersson, the head of international sales at VR.

Mr Andersson added that Russia's proposal lacked realism but then went on to say that VR would rise to the challenge should Russia decide to put the proposal into effect in the autumn.

By contrast, Heidi Hautala and Hanna Holopainen urged Ms Vehviläinen to back a shift to the railways.

The European Parliament election candidates added that the shift should take place regardless of Russia's position.

"Rail shipping currently pays for its infrastructure, so the same should be the case for lorries as well," Ms Hautala said.

"At the moment the pollution, noise, road wear and accidents are left to the Finnish public to pay for."

Ms Vehviläinen and Mari Kiviniemi, the minister tasked with Customs issues, have notified EU officials in the hope of raising the issue in forthcoming high-level meetings between the union and Russia.

STT
Lehtikuva - Kimmo Mäntylä