The blockage on the Poi Pet side at 9am paralysed the flow of traffic with 280 Cambodia-bound cargo trucks lined up bumper to bumper in a three-kilometre-long stretch from the Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint to Ban Kilo Ha.

Pol Lt-Colonel Benjapol Rodsawat, deputy chief of the Sa Kaew immigration police office, led a team to join their Poi Pet counterparts to negotiate with the protesters.

The officers were told that the protesters were upset by the Thai Customs Agency allegedly overcharging for its tax on fruits and vegetables, which the protesters had bought from Thailand’s Rong Klua Border Market to sell in Cambodia. The usual surcharge is Bt100 to Bt200 per pushcart, but Customs officials were charging Bt300 to Bt400, officials were told.

However, Ban Klong Leuk Customs checkpoint head Supatpong Saelim said his agency did not charge a tax for fruit and vegetables. A further investigation led to protester representatives identifying employees of private shipping companies as the people who had overcharged them.

The companies’ employees told officials that they provided slips required for Cambodians importing Thai goods across the border, and the payment was to compensate for the taxes that the companies would have to pay.

They told officials that the fee hike was meant to cover the full tax that the companies paid to the Aranyaprathet Customs checkpoint. Officials negotiated on the Cambodian protesters’ behalf to reduce the fee to the previous rate, which the companies reportedly agreed to and the protest dissolved at 10am.