The inoperability of Border Inspection Posts (PIF) at airports Tenerife South and Tenerife North It obliges Las Palmas Gando to divert the merchandise that requires this service to Tenerife. The consequence is that the loss and the increase in price of products, both perishable and long-lasting, as well as contracts, in addition to “conditioning the possibility and ability to diversify the economy,” denounces the regional deputy Rosa Davila (DC).
Although 90% of the merchandise that the Island receives arrives through the ports, the 10% that enters via the airport has to pass customs control in Gran Canaria. This occurs despite the fact that in the two airport complexes on the island there are adapted facilities such as Border Inspection Post. In the case of the Reina Sofía, the dependencies “were enabled years ago, they are created, but they never became operational.” As for the City of La Laguna, the service stopped being provided when the staff who attended it – attached to the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife – stopped doing so because their demands were not met, explains the also secretary of the Organization of the Canary Island Coalition of Tenerife .
Rosa Dávila warns that “We are facing a problem whose solution is a matter of political will.” While resorting to the argument of a necessary economic diversification, “we find that we are in an outermost region and Tenerife does not have a Border Inspection Point.” The regional deputy maintains that this circumstance occurs because “no specific personnel have been assigned to attend the PIF in any of the island’s airports. This causes damage.”
The demand for the start-up of the Border Inspection Post at the Tenerife South and Tenerife North airports is a matter that involves the central Government – through the Tax Agency, Animal Health, Plant Health, External Health and the Official Inspection Service , Surveillance and Customs Regulation (Soivre) – and the Canarian Executive, assures Dávila. She recalls that she made a request in this regard as General Director of Transport of the Government of the Canary Islands, during the 2003-2007 term, under the Presidency of Adán Martín.
Sources of the state mercantile society Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) they assure that their competence is limited to enabling the facilities of the Border Inspection Post of the Tenerife South Airport, confirming that they are “in perfect condition”, although not in use.
The Reina Sofía has facilities enabled for control but they never entered service
An NLP
The nationalist deputy in the Autonomous Chamber includes this problem in the Proposition No of Law (PNL) that her political formation raises with the objective that the regional Executive extend to Saturdays, Sundays and holidays the control and inspection hours in the Canarian ports of merchandise in all areas of its competence. Rosa Dávila maintains that «The Canary Islands cannot be closed for holidays. The Islands cannot be isolated on holidays or weekends, and this is the case today.
Explain that the service of the Border Inspection Post in the docks of Tenerife ceases activity every Friday at noon until Monday or when the corresponding bank holiday ends. “In other words, the merchandise that arrives at the port on a Friday will not be in the distribution chain until Tuesday.” This circumstance especially affects perishable products both imported and exported. As an example, he cites a case recorded last weekend. “Binter could not remove an aircraft engine that arrived on Friday from the dock until Monday,” he explains before emphasizing that “important maritime repair contracts have also been lost, because the availability of spare parts or merchandise during the weekend cannot be guaranteed. of week”.
While this is happening in Tenerife, the regional deputy maintains that “In Gran Canaria, operations are authorized in a timely manner, something that is not achieved here in any way”.
“We are facing a problem whose solution is a matter of political will”
Permanent opening
The public complaint and the NLP formulated by CC has its origin in a meeting with the Transport and Logistics working group of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE-Tenerife). The nationalists propose the opening, 24 hours a day and every day of the year, of the ports and airports of the Canary Islands, a measure «very necessary for the economic recovery of the Island and the Archipelago», since «It is not possible for goods to be stopped at ports and airports on weekends, long weekends and holidays for not having a permanent customs system in place “. Dávila assures that this situation “is not experienced anywhere else in Spain and the Canary Islands need this measure to be competitive, especially Tenerife. The central government must meet this demand so as not to lose more jobs.
The CEOE raised it last April
In April, the Transport working group of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE-Tenerife) sent a letter to the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, through which they exposed “this very serious problem”, waiting for an answer. The objective is that the customs service be provided permanently in the ports and airports of the Islands, taking into account the damages that the current system is causing. “The Canary Islands, as an Ultraperipheral Region (RUP), have specificities that should not be an obstacle for our economy, even less for its internalization”, stressed Rosa Dávila. The solution “is a matter of political will.”
