By Houda Mzioudet.
Tunis, 15 May 2016:
Full commercial traffic between Tunisia and Libya will resume tomorrow, Monday, after more than a fortnight . . .[restrict]as a result of agreement by the new cross-border committee set up last week by the Presidency Council head Faiez Serraj and Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. Ordinary Tunisian travellers were permitted to cross the border into Libya yesterday.
The Ras Jedir crossing was closed to Tunisian traffic by the Libyans on 29 April amid allegations that Tunisian merchants were taking advantage of the drop in the value of the Libyan dinar by buying goods cheaply in Libya and reselling them in Tunisia.
The joint committee is headed by Hafedh Ben Sassi, the mayor of Zuwara, and Taher Matmati, the governor of Mednine in the south of Tunisia, and includes Libyan and Tunisian security and customs authorities. It met on Friday and immediately agreed to fully reopen the Ras Jedir border crossing.
It also discussed a number of other issues including the creation of a uniform tax on imported goods from both countries and the formation of a committee to follow up on complaints from Libyan and Tunisian travellers.
Matmati told Tunisia’s Radio Tataouine that Libyan travellers’ complaints about poor treatment from Tunisian customs and security officials would be dealt with and that such acts “are not systematic”, and should be seen as “individual behaviours”.
The two sides agreed on the importance of safety for both Libyan and Tunisian travellers. [/restrict]
