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A new EU sanctions package is intended to help prevent illegal timber imports from Russia. The EU deforestation regulation also applies here.<\/p>\n
The German Federal Government takes indications of violations of sanctions for illegal timber imports from Russia very seriously. This emerges from the federal government's response to a request from CDU\/CSU agricultural spokesman Albert Stegemann. The member of the Bundestag followed up on a report by the ZDF magazine \"frontal\" from March 14, 2023.<\/p>\n
This reported that Russian timber continues to enter the EU, although its import has been banned since the fifth EU sanctions package in April 2022. According to ZDF, the import ban is being circumvented primarily with plywood made from Russian birch. The illegal import mainly takes place via Chinese traders and manufacturers. They simply declare the origin of the Russian raw material or process it further.<\/p>\n
China's imports almost tripled<\/strong><\/p>\n The import data from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) is striking. For example, Russian plywood imports amounted to 31.1% in 2021 and fell to 1.7% after the fifth package of sanctions from July 2022. During the same period, imports from China increased from 10.9% to 30.1%. It is well known among timber traders that China does not have that much native birch, according to ZDF.<\/p>\n In its reply, the German Federal Government points out that concrete indications of violations of sanctions are passed on to the responsible prosecution authorities. They are working together with their partners to prevent sanctions being circumvented via third countries.<\/p>\n Stegemann: The government is reacting too slowly<\/strong><\/p>\n For Stegemann, this is all happening too slowly: \"It took more than a year of war for the traffic light to think about how Russia's circumvention of sanctions can be combated at all.\"<\/p>\n In his opinion, the German Federal Government must work in advance to ensure that circumvention of sanctions, such as that in the case of wood, is prevented or made significantly more difficult. After all, one of the upcoming EU sanctions packages should now deal with this, according to the CDU MP.<\/p>\n Deforestation law makes circumvention more difficult<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the response to the Union's request, votes were already being taken within the Federal Government on proposals for possible further measures. From the point of view of the Federal Government, a future package of sanctions by the European Union should also focus on combating the circumvention of sanctions.<\/p>\n The Federal Government believes that the EU regulation against deforestation that has already been passed will also help, especially with regard to wood and other agricultural products. The geo-localization obligation enshrined therein will be an important tool in the future to make it more difficult to conceal the place of origin of goods.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new EU sanctions package is intended to help prevent illegal timber imports from Russia. The EU deforestation regulation also applies here. The German Federal Government takes indications of violations of sanctions for illegal timber imports from Russia very seriously. … Continue reading