The Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as a body that represents import and export trade in the country’s largest port, asked for the Greek government’s intervention to the European Commission. More specifically, it asked for measures to avoid excessive levies on goods due to the crisis in the Red Sea, which has increased the costs of transit to Europe.
The president of the Piraeus Chamber, Vassilis Korkidis, explained that the “domino” of higher freights, the imposition of surcharges, the cost of delivery delays and the final revaluation of the goods will be once again rolled over to the final consumer. The prices of imported, and not only, consumer products will peak in the European market which has already been under pressure due to high inflation, with significant repercussions for EU trade and the eeurozone economy in general.
The Chamber considers that immediate measures should be taken at a central European level so that cargoes from Asia to Europe which were forced to re-route around the southern tip of Africa are not subject to customs and tax charges at 100% of the current and ever-increasing freights. On the contrary, they must be reduced to a percentage corresponding to the average levels of freights that would be paid when ships normally transit the Suez Canal, imposing a “type of ceiling”, based on prices of December 12, 2023, for as long as the state of war in the Red Sea lasts.
