Norway will remove hundreds of used tires

RIGA (LETA) - Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Indulis Berzins and the Norwegian Ambassador to Latvia Herberth Linder exchanged notes last month saying Norway will remove 100 box cars of used tires from Latvia, said Liga Bergmane, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman.

The agreement stipulates that the freight will be removed from Rezekne and eliminated in an environmentally-friendly fashion, said Bergmane. She added that Norway will be exempt from taxes for transportation of the freight.

The foreign minister highly praised Norway's resolution to withdraw the cargo of used tires from Latvia.

According to Bergmane, this is a formal conclusion of the used tires freight issue, even though it is not known when exactly the freight will leave Latvia.

Since Sept. 2, 1998, about 1,500 tons of used tires have been stranded in Latvia after Russia refused to accept the freight sent from Norway.

Russia could not accept the freight since corresponding documents were missing, while the exporter of the freight, the Norwegian firm Viking Energiselkaps, had been declared insolvent shortly after the freight left Norway.

Eighty-one boxcars are sitting in Rezekne, five box cars were unloaded in Jekabpils, and 14 at Riga's Skirotava railroad station.