Ethiopia Will Use Eritrean Ports For Free - በፍቅር ሐይል ተደመሩ ~ Eritrean press

When Ethiopia was using the port of Assab (pictured) from 1991-1997, they were paying Eritrea nothing from a profit standpoint. As the IMF quote below shows, Ethiopia was using the port of Assab for free.

“As stipulated under an intergovernmental transit and port services agreement as well as a customs arrangement (amended annually), the port of Assab is a FREE port for Ethiopia, with its own Ethiopian customs branch office, and goods shipped to or from Ethiopia remain exempt from the Eritrean customs duties and related charges.”

Since pre-Abiy Ethiopian government, Woyane stubbornly stopped using Eritrea’s ports, it has paid dearly financially. According to the Addis Ababa Chambers of Commerce and Sectoral Association, Ethiopia pays Djibouti over US$2 billion per annum and additional millions in port tariffs.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Eritrea is ready and more than willing to offer its Massawa and Assab ports without charge if Ethiopia decides to respect international law and end its occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories.

For Eritrea, the port of these ports' economic potential was never tied to a neighboring country using its services for profit.

The leadership in Asmara understands - especially now that there is a government in Addis Ababa who believe in the rule of law - neighborly special relations are more important than financially gaining from a country’s misfortune.

ABOUT ASSAB PORT

• The port of Assab was connected by road with Addis Ababa. It was developed by the imperial government in the late 1950s.
• l986/87, more than 2.8 million tons of cargo transited Assab, of which about 66 percent consisted of imports, including about 792,000 tons of crude oil for Assab's refinery.
• In l988 Assab handled about 71 percent of the export-import trade for Ethiopia.
• 628 ships docked at the port in 1997, a year before Ethio-Eritrean War (1998-2000). 
• The port is operational 24 hrs a day handling the stevedoring and shore handling works.
• The port can accommodate 6 vessels at one time.
• In 2002, the port, which had been idle since the start of the Ethio-Eritrean War, was undergoing repair and maintenance at the cost of roughly $57 million. 

When Woyane refused to use Assab, the money switched to develop Massawa Port.