DAKAR, July 19 (AFP) - Ministerial teams from Senegal and Gambia have
ended
a row over river ferry fares which had blocked road traffic between the two
west African nations for days, official sources said Friday.
   Officials from Gambia, which is a narrow strip of a country largely cutting
off the north from the south of Senegal, have decided to withdraw a steep rise
in ferry fares across the Gambia river, the pro-government Le Soleil reported.
   Teams led by Senegalese Transport Minister Youssouf Sakho and his
Gambian
counterpart, Edward Singhateh, agreed that Senegal would in return lift a
number of customs restrictions on goods from Gambia, an official statement
said.
   The negotiations lasted for 15 hours late into Thursday night, according to
officials.
   Senegalese truck drivers and their unions had refused to pay the new ferry
fares, which went up by between 50 and 100 percent, and retaliated by
blockading the border from July 9, causing large traffic queues to build up.
   The regulations had exempted Gambian drivers.
   The private daily Sud Quotidien said Friday that the Senegalese roadblock
had already been lifted, before the official account of the negotiations was
released.
   Customs tariffs are very low in Gambia and the country imports a large
number of goods which it re-exports to other nations in the region, particularly
Senegal

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