Russian Birch Again Found in Violation Of 'sanctions' Exports

Earlier, the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) said that China's hardwood plywood exports to the UK were made of birch from Russia, in violation of the UK's "trade ban" on Russian products. Recently, the non-profit monitoring organization Environmental Research Agency (EIA) released a report: after the import of Russian timber was banned, birch from Russia was labeled as an Asian product and entered the US market. This is the second time that Russian timber has been found to be exported through the Chinese market since the Russia-Ukraine incident.

It was previously reported that although many countries have successively imposed "trade restrictions" on Russia after the Russia-Ukraine incident, the overall impact is not great because Russia has begun to turn to the Asia-Pacific market. At present, China is still Russia's largest timber exporter, and the birch in the Chinese timber market basically comes from Russia.

According to import data from Vietnam Customs: about 40,000 cubic meters of birch wood is shipped from Russia and China to Vietnam every month, and some furniture and plywood exported to the United States are made of Russian birch wood. In the context of "trade restrictions", these The raw materials of the products are first shipped from Russia to China, then processed by China and then exported to Vietnam. Finally, the raw materials enter the US market under the label of "Chinese products".

As soon as the incident came out, there was an additional risk in the Vietnamese timber market. In February 2020, the American Hardwood Plywood Fair Trade Alliance applied for an investigation, claiming that Vietnam’s plywood and furniture exported to the United States used hardwood plywood from China. Vietnamese furniture manufacturers need to pay 183.36% AD tax and 194.9% CVD tax. After two years, the final conclusion of the investigation announced that the incident has been postponed for the fourth time. Before the final conclusion, 80% of exporters in Vietnam need to participate in self-certification before they can ship their products to the US market. The market has a considerable impact.

In the context of high global inflation, transportation costs have increased, and countries have begun to slow down timber imports. The Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association and local associations show that in 2022, up to 80% of Vietnam's wood processing enterprises will reduce their orders by 44.4% , the orders of individual companies drop by 100%, and the revenue of companies will drop by 30% or more.

Regarding the raw materials of some Vietnamese products coming from "restricted" Russia, EIA spokesman Thomas Zhang emphasized that this not only violates the relevant system of Vietnam, but also violates the trade rules of the United States. In the future, orders for Vietnamese wooden products to be exported to the United States Whether the amount will be reduced, or the difficulty will increase, is still unknown.