Donald Trump must end, or at least heavily tariff, the trade in Russian timber – which now makes 50% of all trade between the countries – and curb more than US $360 million worth of Russian birch plywood now entering the United States via Vietnam and Indonesia. That is according to the US Decorative Hardwoods Association (DHA), which last month wrote to the Commerce Department and the Office of the US Trade Representative pushing for action on all Russian birch plywood – which they said “continue to finance the Russian war effort.”
“In 2024, the United States imported over $62 million of birch plywood from Russia,” the letter said. “However, these direct imports from Russia pale compared to the nearly $200 million of birch plywood imported from Vietnam and the nearly $160 million imported from Indonesia.”
The DHA’s letter addressed to the Commerce Department and the Office of the US Trade Representative, dated 29th of January 2025.
“These imports come in at low or no tariff rates despite being made with Russian-origin birch. All plywood made with Russian-origin wood and wood inputs, whether imported directly from Russia or a third country after further processing, helps support the Russian war effort,” it said.
The letter comes after President Trump threatened Vladimir Putin with higher tariffs and sanctions if Russia does not help end the Ukraine war, warning: “It’s time to make a deal.”
“I’m not looking to hurt Russia,” the US President told Truth Social. “If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries.”
Heavy sanctions alone might not stop the flow of Russian wood.
Last week, Wood Central revealed that Russian timber was “all over Europe” – after a new report published by Earthsight – showed that 500,000 cubic metres of Russian wood had circumvented the EU’s war sanctions and had infiltrated every member state since the start of the Ukraine War.
The report, Blood-stained Birch: Exposing the EU Trade in Russian Conflict Ply, revealed that profit-hungry timber traffickers were incorrectly using private forest certification labels – like FSC – to launder more than 20 lorry loads of illegal wood (about 700 cubic metres) into Europe via China, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Georgia every day.
“Independent third-party certification, such as that provided by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the world’s largest green label for wood, cannot be trusted (by itself). We found illegal birch plywood is being routinely laundered by FSC-certified companies and provided with false FSC invoices and labels.”
Private forest certification, like FSC and PEFC play an important role in supporting claims around sustainablity, however they can be easily manipulated and must be verified through invoices and Chain of Custody claims.
However, addressing the surge in Russian (and Belarussian) wood may not be a problem around enforcement; instead, how the rules are designed. “Stable isotope and trace technology is increasingly capable of showing where wood is harvested,” it said. “Given this, and to aid enforcement, the EU should consider amending its timber sanctions to include all products made from wood harvested from Russia and Belarus, regardless of whether the products were manufactured in a third country.”
“In theory, the EUTR (Europe’s timber regulation) should already be blocking such products, but it has proven unable to do so,” the report continues. “Placing them under the sanction regime – something for which there is precedence given the sanctions on Russian steel – would be clearer and easier to enforce and open the door to more meaningful and dissuasive penalties.”
- To learn more about the shadow trade in Russian timber, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
