Pakistan truck strike hamstrings exports

Pakistan truck strike hamstrings exports A transport strike in Pakistan has lasted seven days and counting, Pakistani press outlets reported Monday.
   What was initially considered to be a one-day, token strike over high diesel prices and motor carrier taxes has crippled shipments throughout the country. Pakistan’s Daily Times reported Tuesday that Karachi was running low on essential goods, while export shipments have been paralyzed.
   Karachi Chamber of Industry and Commerce members 'are losing their export contracts for missing deadlines, letters of credit are expiring as huge quantities of export cargo is sitting on more than 50,000 trucks and trailers parked on city roads and ports areas waiting for entry, and many exporters have started air freighting cargo to meet their delivery obligations,” said a report on the eyefortransport Web site.
   Truckers are protesting over diesel prices, which they say are not in line with global averages, as well as onerous motor carrier taxes. Some are also striking over a lack of compensation for vehicles lost in riots in Karachi in December 2007.
   The Daily Times reported that the strike was costing the country roughly $120 million per day.