Transport of mineral goods from the Gashuunsukhait – Gants Mod (Ganqimaodu) border crossing is expected to resume after authorities have began to reach common ground in talks to resolve the shutdown. Coal exports from Tavan Tolgoi into China and Oyu Tolgoi’s transport is expected to resume as usual after “Chinese government authorities sought solutions over Mongolia’s increased enforcement of rules on transport permit grants that have triggered protests by Chinese truck owners in recent days,” reported sxcoal.com Turquoise Hill recently announced that Oyu Tolgoi has declared force majeure in connection to customer contracts for concentrate due to a protest by Chinese coal transporters. On January 8, 2018, protestors used a large number of vehicles to obstruct the main access road within China to the Chinese-Mongolian border. The protestors are Chinese companies that are opposed to having to pay the social and health insurance of the Mongolian drivers employed by the companies. A letter containing 12 demands to the Mongolian side was sent by the companies, including exemption from Mongolian laws. “The placement of protestors’ vehicles prevented any traffic from safely traversing the border, both inbound and outbound, and has continued to do so. As a result, while the obstruction remains in place, Oyu Tolgoi convoys are unable to cross through the Chinese-Mongolian border to deliver concentrates to customers,” Turquoise Hill stated last week. Affected by the strike, coal trucks through Ganqimaodu have sharply reduced recently. Data showed there were only three coal trucks going out of the border and 19 in on January 15, with daily coal import tumbling to 260 tons, reported sxcoal.com The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said it has been discussing the issue with Mongolian authorities, preliminarily convincing them to stop the new rules on the premise of no less than 1,000 trucks going through the border crossing each day. Deputy Foreign Minister B.Battsetseg has been overseeing the negotiation for resolving the issue and held a press conference to answer questions from the media regarding the talks. There were reports that the transport of coal and copper concentrates going through the Gants Mod border crossing were halted due to a large number of vehicles obstructing the main access in a sign of protest. What is the reason for the protest? Beginning on January 8, all transport had been ceased and trucks that had crossed into the Chinese border were not able to come back into Mongolia. The reason is that owners of companies which rent large trucks for transport and their drivers staged a protest by blockading the main access road. This was organized by a certain group of owners, companies and drivers. The protestors delivered several demands to the Chinese border authorities. Their demands were not officially sent to the Mongolian side. The Chinese government has also assured us that they had no involvement in the protest. It was reported that issue was resolved on January 18. Has transport gone back to normal levels? If so, how was the issue resolved? Since January 10, our Foreign Ministry has paid special attention to this issue and sought to resolve it through diplomatic channels. We met with the Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Xing Haiming while our Ambassador to China in Beijing and officials at the Consulate in Hohhot met with the relevant authorities to resolve the issue as soon as possible. In December 2017, Foreign Minister D.Tsogtbaatar visited China by the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed the Gashuunsukhait – Gants Mod issue in depth. The two counterparts exchanged views on increasing the passage of trucks and as a result, transport increased due to Minister Wang Yi paying special attention to the issue. As a result of immediate action being taken to meet with Chinese authorities, as of January 18, the transport at the border is normal with both sides being open. Even though the demands of the protestors were not sent to the Mongolian government, it is obvious that there was a reason for their protest. What were their demands? The owners of the trucks obstructing the main access delivered 12 demands to the border authorities at Bayannuur of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. The demands will be sent to the Mongolia side once it has been processed through their system. Has the Foreign Ministry received any preliminary information about the demands? We have seen unconfirmed reports regarding the demands that were set forth. For instance, since Mongolia ceased direct transport, there have been many complications, therefore the demand was to develop all types of transport. Another demand was regarding the limitation of license distribution for transport provided by the government. The protestors demanded that the license be provided to more trucks. In addition, the protestors sought to change the social insurance fee to be more flexible. There was also a demand to address the inequalities in the transport operations and labor conditions at the border. What stance has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained in regards to this issue? The Foreign Ministry made it clear that the issue must be brought up directly to Mongolia. Of course, the protestors will not blockade roads without a reason. If the protestors seek equality and fairness, we communicated that we were open to establish a joint working group to address these issues. Private owners of trucks and drivers broke the law and created a chaotic situation, therefore it is hard to classify it as official or legitimate. Problems cannot be resolved this way. It is unfortunate that such a protest took place when the issue was decided on the ministerial level between the two countries. A joint working group will be established in the near future to address the issue further.