Forest brothers

Finland decided not to interfere with Russia's accession to the WTO

Finland has decided to accept the increase in export duties on unprocessed wood in Russia . Helsinki will not prevent Russia from joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), despite increasing tariffs, an unnamed senior source in the Finnish government told Reuters yesterday. “Russia is now and in the future will be the largest trading partner in the world, so it would be somewhat abnormal if it were not a member of the WTO. We really hope that the Russians will be able to join the WTO, and as soon as possible,” said a source in the Finnish government.

It is worth recalling that it was Moscow’s intention to increase timber duties that was recently considered the main obstacle to its entry into the WTO. This was once again confirmed by European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson, who came to Moscow in June of this year. He said at the time that if the Russian government took a step back and made it clear that there would be no tariff increase planned for January next year, it would serve to strengthen trust between Russia and the European Union.

Russia will be able to join the WTO only when it resolves the conflict with the EU over duties, European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn said just a week ago on Finnish television. “It is clear that the timber export duties imposed by Russia contradict the terms of the EU-Russia agreement. Until a satisfactory solution is found, Russia will not be able to become a member of the WTO,” said Mr. Ren.

Export duties on timber exports in Russia are being increased in stages - from July 1, 2007, April 1, 2008, January 1, 2009 and January 1, 2011. By 2011, duty rates on a number of items will increase to 80% of the customs value, but not less than 50 euros per 1 cubic meter. m. According to the European Commission, the level of duties seriously affects the cost of products of Scandinavian manufacturers, forcing them to raise prices. Finland is the most affected party. It is a world leader in paper production, with 20% of its raw materials purchased from neighboring Russia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Finnish counterpart Tarja Halonen discussed this issue quite recently, at the end of June, at the Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiysk. A bilateral meeting took place there, at which the issue of increasing duties was the main one.

In addition to Finland, the increase in duties is very painful for Sweden. But Swedish Foreign Trade Minister Eva Bjorling said at the end of June that Stockholm would not block Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization, since the Russian Federation is one of Sweden’s ten largest foreign economic partners. Now Finland seems to have come to the same decision.

Vera SITNINA