Export duties on sawn timber and woodworking industry products will be enforced as from 16 August according to Belarus president decree No.305 of 5 August 2021, the Forestry Ministry press service told BelTA.
The export duties will stay in place through 31 December 2021. The government will decide whether to leave the export duties in place or not after that.
The export duty on rough timber will be €100 per 1m3, chipped wood – 6.5% of the customs value but at least €2 per 1m3, timber with sawed-off broad surfaces and one or two bark edges at most 50mm thick – €100 per 1m3, flakeboard and fiberboard – 5% of the customs value. Other products are also affected by the export duties.
The source noted that the export duties will not be levied for timber sold to the Eurasian Economic Union member states, to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.
The introduction of the timber export duties is one of the measures meant to encourage deeper rough timber conversion inside the country. The presidential decree is also supposed to prevent a shortage of resources because all the wood is in demand in Belarus today. The decree is also supposed to rule out corruption.
