Ukraine will lift the moratorium on the export of round timber to the European Union in exchange for € 600 million. This conclusion follows from a joint statement signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the Ukraine-EU summit. BusinessCensor journalist Yuriy Vinnichuk.

He noted that on October 12, at the Ukraine-EU summit, a statement was made that the European Union will provide us with a second tranche of macro-financial assistance in the amount of 600 million euros.

“We received the first tranche of 600 million euros in December 2020 without any specific conditions, because there was a COVID-19 pandemic. But the second tranche was tied to a number of requirements, including successful cooperation with the IMF, judicial reform and a moratorium on timber exports,” the journalist wrote.

He recalled that in 2015 Ukraine banned the export of unprocessed timber (round timber) for 10 years.

“The EU countries accounted for 70% of timber exports from Ukraine. Woodworking factories were built along the entire perimeter of the border with the EU countries, focusing on raw materials from our Carpathians. They imported timber as a raw material from Ukraine and produced furniture, parquet, laminate from it. That is, a value-added product, the production of which creates more jobs and taxes,” he wrote.

The expert added that at the same time, demand from EU woodworking companies stimulated procurers to devastate the Ukrainian Carpathians.

“After the ban, it was not possible to completely stop the supply of timber to the EU, round timber was smuggled out under the guise of firewood. Even IKEA contractors were caught when using the illegally felled forest of the Ukrainian Carpathians for the production of furniture. However, the smuggled volumes do not fully satisfy the EU woodworking industry,” the journalist emphasized.

He noted that the EU needs round timber on a much larger scale, "which Ukrainian smugglers can provide."

“Therefore, in 2019, the EU initiated a procedure for resolving the dispute over the moratorium through arbitration and sent a request to create an Arbitration Group. In December 2020, the arbitration panel presented its award. They admitted that the moratorium was incompatible with the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. And in order for Ukraine to lift the ban on timber exports, the EU tied this decision to the allocation of macro-financial assistance,” the expert noted.

AgroPolit