VZCZCXRO7399
PP RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHPW RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #1542/01 1271136
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071136Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7897
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC 0453
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 4022

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KABUL 001542 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/FO (GASTRIGHT, DEUTSCH), SCA/RA, AND SCA/A 
CENTCOM FOR CG CFC-A 
DEPT PASS AID/ANE, OPIC, USTDA AND TDA 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN 
TREASURY PASS TO LMCDONALD, ABAUKOL, AND JCIORCIARI 
OSD FOR BRZEZINSKI 
COMMERCE FOR DEES 
 
E.O. 12958 N/A 
TAGS: ELTN ETRD MOPS PREL KCRM ELAB ASUP AMGT AF
SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN - TRUCKER STRIKE DISRUPTS COMMERCE AND DELIVERY 
OF SUPPLIES TO US TROOPS 
 
This message contains SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED information. 
Please protect accordingly. 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) A truckers' strike called by a Peshawar-based transport 
association has stopped containerized traffic from entering 
Afghanistan at the Torkham border crossing since April 27.  The 
truckers are protesting taxes, bribes and illegal collections they 
have to pay on the highway between Torkham and Kabul.  The strike 
has disrupted supplies for the U.S. Military, which has over 800 
container loads stranded between Peshawar and Torkham.  The GOA is 
working at senior levels to address the truckers' demands and 
believes an end to the strike may be near.  Embassy has engaged the 
GOA to encourage swift resolution. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The action by the truckers has served to highlight 
obstacles encountered by truckers on transit trade routes in 
Afghanistan and raise these to the attention of the top levels of 
the GOA.  Many of these difficulties reflect fundamental governance 
deficiencies which will require the exercise of strong GOA political 
will to address.  In particular, the Ministry of Interior needs to 
step up to the plate.  The GOA has persistently complained about the 
impediments faced by Afghan traders in moving their exports and 
imports through Pakistan.  While the GOA and the traders have 
legitimate grievances on that score, we hope this confrontation will 
drive home to the GOA that it has to get its own house in order. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
WHEELS JAM 
---------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The Peshawar-based Pakistan-Afghanistan Transport 
Association has been observing a "wheels jam" strike since April 27, 
2007, to protest high legal taxes and illegal collections that 
truckers have to pay between Torkham and Kabul.  The strike, which 
is also supported by the trucking industry within Afghanistan, has 
shut down containerized traffic from Pakistan into Afghanistan on 
the Peshawar-Kabul highway.  The truckers have three specific areas 
of concern:  the Governor of Nangarhar's unauthorized 
"reconstruction" tax on truckers; a proliferation of checkpoints, 
including those manned by Afghanistan National Police (ANP) and 
Afghanistan Border Police (ABP), where truckers are required to pay 
"taxes and fees"; and the level of legal taxes and fees.  Underlying 
these specific demands is a more general discontent at the 
harassment meted to truckers at multiple checkpoints and the bribes 
they have to pay to get through. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) According to our reports, as of Saturday (May 5) evening, 
hundreds of trucks were lined up along the Peshawar-Torkham highway. 
 Over 800 of these are carrying supplies for the U.S. Military and 
this number is increasing by an average of 50 trucks a day.  If this 
strike continues, U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan could begin to 
experience shortages of some solid goods supplies they receive 
through Pakistan.  It could also begin to affect catering and other 
services to the Embassy and the international community in Kabul. 
Several new vehicles being shipped to the Embassy in containers have 
already been stranded.  Embassy is engaged at various levels in 
urging a swift resolution to the issue. 
 
AGREEMENT REACHED, NOT YET IMPLEMENTED 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U) While containerized traffic was still not crossing the 
border as of Sunday (May 6) morning, Finance Deputy Minister 
Ibrahimi -- the Finance Minister and the senior Deputy Finance 
Minister are out of the country -- told Embassy officers on May 6 
that an agreement had been reached between the GOA and the truckers 
to end the strike on Sunday.  Ibrahimi, who is responsible for 
customs and revenue collection, said he planned to follow up 
immediately to find out why the traffic had not yet reopened. 
 
KABUL 00001542  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
6.(SBU) According to Ibrahimi, the outline of a deal between the GOA 
and the truckers had been brokered by Vice President Khalili on 
Thursday (May 3) when he brought together the concerned GOA 
Ministries and the strikers and their trucking unions, including the 
spokesman of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Trucking Association.  Khalili 
subsequently constituted an inter-ministerial working committee 
headed by Ibrahimi to address the truckers' demands on a fast track 
basis and provide a set of agreed recommendations within a month. 
In turn, the truckers reportedly agreed to lift their strike on 
Sunday (May 6).  Ibrahimi's working committee is scheduled to meet 
this week to propose solutions.  Once the proposals are agreed to by 
the truckers, they will be forwarded to Khalili, who will take them 
up with President Karzai. Ibrahimi said the protestors' demands 
could be placed in two categories: those that can be addressed 
immediately; and those that would require significant regulatory or 
legislative changes. 
 
THE TRUCKERS' DEMANDS 
--------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) Reconstruction Tax: The striking truckers want elimination 
of the Nangarhar Governor's 3,000-5,000 Afghani ($1-49Afs) tax on 
each truck going through his province.  Ibrahimi confirmed that this 
tax was wholly illegal and the Governor should cease collecting it 
immediately.  He noted there was little accountability on where this 
revenue goes.  Ibrahimi claimed this practice is not uncommon in 
other provinces as well where there is relatively heavy cargo 
traffic.   He said that there were provisions in the GOA's budgetary 
system for Governors to request and receive funds from the central 
government through the Ministry of Interior for their legitimate 
development and operating expenses. 
 
¶8.  (U) ANP/ABP Checkpoints: A second concern is the multiple 
checkpoints along Highway A-1 from Torkham to Kabul, where trucks 
are stopped by men in ANP or ABP uniform and asked to pay a fee.  It 
is quite likely these are legitimate ANP and ABP personnel.  The 
lack of any action against these checkpoints suggests that the 
practice is condoned at high levels in the Ministry of Interior 
(MOI) and the collections may also find their way up the chain. 
Ibrahimi said these fees had no basis in law and needed to be 
eliminated.  He noted that the MOI's Traffic Department does collect 
annual vehicle registration fees, implying that the MOI's police 
checkpoints may be using registration verification as one of the 
pretexts to stop and shakedown the trucks. 
 
¶9.  (U) Municipal Taxes:  The transportation industry also wants 
removal of the "municipal tax" on trucks levied by Kabul and several 
other cities.  Kabul has checkpoints around the city to collect this 
tax when trucks enter the city.  While this tax is legal and on the 
books, Ibrahimi referred to these municipal fees as one of five or 
six "nuisance" taxes which the MoF wants eliminated.  It is drafting 
legislation to repeal these taxes and fees. 
 
¶10.  (U) Road Toll Tax:  The protesters want changes in this new 
road toll introduced last fiscal year by the MoF.  The tax is 
intended to provide for maintenance of new roads being built around 
the country.  According to Ibrahimi, the tax, as originally 
conceived, was to be payable on a quarterly basis, but after 
objections from the trucking industry, MoF lowered the tax and 
reduced the levy period from quarterly to monthly and then to 
weekly.  The truckers, who argue that their trucks generally enter 
Afghanistan sporadically, now want this tax to be levied only when 
and if the truck enters Afghanistan.  This will make administration 
of the tax difficult and require new supplies of stickers, Ibrahimi 
said, but MoF is willing to accept the truckers' demand.  He did 
express frustration with the frequently changing position of the 
truckers on this issue over the last year. 
 
¶11.  (U) License Fees:  The strikers are also protesting MoF plans 
to enforce the payment of an annual license fee of about 150 Af per 
ton capacity that has apparently been largely ignored by both the 
 
KABUL 00001542  003 OF 004 
 
 
GOA and the truckers for the last 25 years.  What the truckers find 
even more unpalatable is the threat by the MoF to collect the fee 
retroactively for however long the truck has operated in and out of 
Afghanistan.  Ibrahimi observed that as long as the law is on the 
books, it is incumbent on the MoF to enforce it.  Not only do the 
truckers not want to pay the tax retroactively, they want an 
exemption from this tax going forward.  (Note: While Ibrahimi did 
not indicate a solution to this issue, we find it unlikely that the 
GOA could go back 25 years in its records to support a retroactive 
collection of this fee.  The more plausible solution appears to be 
that the GOA would write off the past nonpayment and the truckers 
would drop their demand for an exemption from the tax going 
forward.) 
 
¶12.  (U) Ministry of Transportation (MoT) Fees:  The protesters want 
removal of two "movement fees" collected by MoT at checkpoints on 
the Torkham-Kabul road.  These fees are legal but Ibrahimi is in 
favor of their repeal.  He believes that tax and revenue collection 
responsibility should only be vested in MoF.  Besides, checkpoints 
run by multiple agencies to verify documents or collect fees lead to 
multiple opportunities for graft and corruption. 
 
¶13.  (U) Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) Fee:  In response 
to the strike, MoCI eliminated its 180 Af commercial fee.   MoCI's 
Director General of Foreign Trade and the Special Assistant to the 
Commerce Minister told us that the Ministry is sympathetic to the 
truckers' plight.  MoCI believes that the high costs and obstacles 
faced by transporters are hurting traders and exacting a toll on the 
Afghan economy.  The Commerce Minister intends to raise this within 
the Cabinet to urge his colleagues to address the strikers' 
demands. 
 
¶14.  (U) Reciprocal Rights for Afghan Trucks:  The Afghan trucking 
industry also has demanded that Afghan trucks be allowed to ply to 
any city in Pakistan, just as Pakistani trucks are allowed to take 
cargo to any place in Afghanistan.  Currently, Afghan trucks can 
only go as far as Peshawar.  Since this is not something the GOA can 
grant, the GOA should be able to readily agree to take up the issue 
with Pakistan, possibly at the next Joint Economic Commission 
meeting. 
 
MEDIA COVERAGE 
-------------- 
 
¶15.  (U) Media coverage of this strike within Afghanistan has been 
sparse.  We assume this is because the strike is not having an 
immediate impact on the common Afghan as only containerized traffic 
is being stopped.  Flat-bed "jingle" trucks which transport the 
imported staple food and other necessities used by most Afghan 
people are getting through. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶16.  (SBU) Embassy understands from Ibrahimi and others that the 
strike may be on the verge of being lifted.  This would be good news 
for the Afghan economy and the U.S. Military.  If the strike lingers 
on, the Embassy will approach the GOA at higher levels to urge 
actions to resolve the differences with the truckers. 
 
¶17.  (SBU) Issues related to extortion, corruption and other 
impediments to cross-border trade on the Afghan side have festered 
for some time.  The action by the truckers has served to sharpen the 
issues and raise them to the attention of the top levels of the GOA. 
 In the past, the GOA has issued directives to crack down on 
extortion and harassment but little has improved.  We hope that VP 
Khalili and Deputy Minister Ibrahimi's working committee will be 
able to develop practical solutions that address the real problems 
encountered by the truckers.  Embassy believes that issues relating 
to the levels and the rationale of some of the legal taxes and fees 
can be debated in good faith and reasonable compromises reached. 
The more challenging issues are the extortion and bribes collected 
 
KABUL 00001542  004 OF 004 
 
 
by ANP/ABP and other agencies at the checkpoints.  These reflect 
fundamental governance deficiencies which require the exercise of 
strong political will by the GOA.  In particular, the Ministry of 
Interior needs to step up to the plate.  We have heard that the 
Governor's Reconstruction Tax will be eliminated and that corrupt 
Border Police officers will soon be arrested. 
 
¶18.  (SBU) The GOA has for long persistently complained about 
impediments faced by Afghan traders in moving their exports and 
imports through Pakistan.  While the GOA and the traders have 
legitimate grievances on that score, we hope this confrontation will 
drive home to the GOA that it has to get its own house in order as 
well. 
 
¶19.  (SBU) Ibrahimi and Embassy contacts have hinted at or ascribed 
Pakistan-sponsored political motives behind the confrontation. 
Others have suggested that Taliban insurgents have joined with some 
influential people on the Pakistan side to foment the stoppage to 
squeeze the GOA and the NATO forces in Afghanistan.  Although the 
strike was driven and enforced primarily from the Pakistan side of 
the border, we have no basis to agree or disagree with these 
observations. 
 
WOOD