Russia stopping log exports to China and the situation in the EU and France
8.12.2021
Question for written answer E-005452/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Dominique Bilde (ID)
Russia, the second largest exporter of timber in the world, recently announced that it would be banning the export of unprocessed logs as of 2022[1].
This decision targets exports to China, which put a stop to the commercial logging of its natural forests in 2017 and in 2019, imported 114 cubic metres of logs.
Between 2007 and 2019, French timber exports to China increased sevenfold (from 50 000 to 350 000 tonnes per year), putting strain on a number of sawmills.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), ‘China is volumetrically the world’s largest wood-based panel exporter’. China is also the main non-European supplier of wooden furniture to the EU[2].
Imports increased by 11% in 2019, while European manufacturers lost market share[3][4][5][6].
Will the Commission, with the Member States, explore the possibility of increasing duties on certain timber products imported from China and restricting the export of unprocessed logs?
- [1] https://www.lafranceagricole.fr/actualites/cultures/bois-foret-lappetit-des-chinois-alarme-la-filiere-du-chene-francais-1,0,2268709284.html
- [2] ‘China’s main timber supplier[...], Russia, has just announced that it will ban the export of unprocessed logs as of 2022’. ‘China is devouring the world’s entire wood supply’, Joséphine Pasquier, Le Figaro Premium, 26 July 2021
- [3] ‘Since 2007, timber exports to Beijing (China) have increased sevenfold, from 50 000 tonnes to 350 000 per year’; https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/industrie/industrie-la-chine-devore-le-bois-francais_3446677.html
- [4] https://unece.org/DAM/timber/publications/2020/SP-50.pdf
- [5] https://forestindustries.info/eu-wood-furniture-production-sliding-before-covid-19-pandemic-itto-european-market-report-15th-august-2020
- [6] ‘European wood furniture manufacturers lost internal EU market share to overseas producers in 2019’