EU Adopts Fifth Round of Sanctions, Effectively Halting Russian Wood Exports to the EU
EU sanctions ban Russian wood exports
On Friday (4-8-22), the European Union (EU) adopted its fifth round of sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The new sanctions include import bans on wood, cement, fertilizers, seafood, and liquor. The new round of sanctions will effectively halt Russian wood exports to Finland and other EU countries.
Timo Tolonen, a trade specialist at Finnish Forest Industries said of the new sanctions, “This will in effect end the last remaining import possibilities.”
In 2021, Russian wood imports accounted for a tenth of the Finnish forest industry’s raw material needs. Tolonen noted that Finnish forest product companies were already looking to substitute Russian wood before the war broke out.
According to Tolonen, Finnish companies are turning their gaze to domestic timber felled in the process of forest thinning, adding that forestry firms are also considering Baltic wood imports.
The latest EU sanctions package has also stopped Russian and Belarusian lorries at the Finnish border since midnight on Friday. Finnish Customs on Saturday said some three dozen trucks had been turned back at Finnish checkpoints by Saturday morning.
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