Strasbourg, 21/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has endorsed four agreements with Russia that pave the way for the country to join the WTO and which benefit the European forestry industry.
By adopting the recommendation prepared by Inese Vaidere (EPP, Latvia) on Wednesday 21 November, the European Parliament has given its approval to the bilateral EU/Russia agreement on the timber trade. This set out the terms of the trade with the European forestry industry. Wood processing firms in the construction and paper sectors will be able to buy cheaper imports of raw spruce and pine from Russia.
Under the terms of the agreement, Russia is prepared to open up a low export duty quota for spruce and pine and allocate a relatively large share of it to the EU. Within this quota the export duty will be 13% for spruce and 15% for pine, compared to the out-of-quota export duty rate of 80%. The deal also stipulates that the EU can allocate the quota according to its internal procedures. Vaidere welcomed this “turning point” in EU-Russia trade relations, which would, for the first time, allow the EU to administer a third country's tariff-rate quotas. On Wednesday, she described the deal as, “an important asset for the stability and reliability of the trade relations and a step towards more stable and predictable trade with Russia”.
Russia has been the EU's main source of lumber over the past two decades, supplying up to 60% of all the EU's imported wood. EU imports of spruce and pine from Russia dropped by 80% after 2007, when Russia imposed export duties on raw lumber. The new tariff quotas are large enough to generate an increase in import flows of Russian lumber to the EU, which could return to their 2007 levels by 2014-2015.
The Parliament gave its approval on 4 July last to three other bilateral agreements with Russia in the context of the country joining the WTO (agreement on car parts, a raw materials and trade in services). Russia formally became a member of the WTO on 22 August. (EH/transl.fl)