According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Russia is to come to the terms in the field of export duties on roundwood. Moreover, Russia itself offered the EU to significantly increase  export duties on deciduous wood.

Russia is ready to increase export duties by tens %. It will mostly concern birch that is widely used in the Finnish industry, whereas in Russia this kind of wood is not practically processed by the Russian companies.

However, the project doesn’t include coniferous wood – that is of highly importance for Germany. As a result, there is no common decision in the EU re. the Russian offer.

Last week Paavo Vayrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade, said that duties issue would be solved in the nearest future.

Business Support Bureau "Runa"  www.runa.info 

For more information about Russian timber industry, please see MOST  (Market Overview. Statistics. Trends) - regularly updated digest of the situation in the Russian timber industry! New edition (Spring 2010) issued in June 2010!