At the beginning of the year, our foreign minister tweeted that the private sector had donated less than 20 million euros. I am sure that the amounts are significantly higher, because if I count the monetary donations of certain companies in the forest industry that I know, I quickly get at least 5 million euros. If you add all the cars given to the Twitter convoy, the specialized equipment provided and other things useful for the farm, it is clear on which side the hearts and works of the Latvian woodworkers, entrepreneurs and society are.
However, in the discussion of the Bank of Latvia, the question posed by the editor-in-chief of “Delfi Bizness” Aija Krūtaine: “Exports to Russia have not significantly decreased. Isn’t there an ethical problem here – to continue trading with the aggressor country?” is perfectly legitimate and smolders in many of us. It is completely understandable that the audience expects a simple and direct answer: yes or no.
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It seems like it would be very easy for representatives of the forest industry to answer the specific question, because neither before the Russian invasion of Ukraine (regardless of whether the reference point is 2014 or 2022), nor after that, we do not talk about Russia and Belarus as a noticeable wood product of Latvian origin market. This has been, but not important for the industry, nor for the companies themselves, and certainly not irreplaceable.
However, similar to what Māris Čaklais has said – “And once in a while / Someone reminds him, / That the song is not about shirts, / But it’s about consciences” –, not everything is so simple in the Latvian forest industry either. Exports to the two aggressor countries were small for us, but the import of raw materials was – important. Therefore, I had to answer the question that Mrs. Krūtaines asked, looking into the eyes of businessmen who, as the Belarusian and Russian undried and otherwise unprocessed boards disappear from the market, have to lay off people from drying, planing and other further processing workshops. The harsh reality is that a large part of Belarusian and Russian board imports cannot be replaced because of their specificity – relatively cheap and poorly processed. Our niche was to further process them. It has already been possible to replace something with the products of Sweden and other neighboring countries, but generally speaking, products with such low processing as in Belarus and Russia are simply not produced elsewhere in Europe.
What was and is my answer? First of all, I believe that a situation where the entrepreneur has to make the choice himself should be avoided as much as possible. Theorizing is easy, but when you have to choose – lay off a few hundred employees or continue cooperation with the companies of the aggressor countries –, the entrepreneur faces a very difficult decision. And not only that – your competitors have to answer the same question. Moreover, not only in Latvia. Therefore, it is easy to expect that responses and actions will differ, thus creating unfair competition.
Therefore, the Latvian Wood Industry Federation advocated more radical solutions. Our colleagues and politicians in Europe were of the same opinion, and the import sanctions of wood products have been in force since the summer, and in the spring Russian and Belarusian producers were stripped of their FSC and PEFC certificates, thus making it difficult to sell in other global markets. This does not mean that there are no attempts to circumvent the sanctions. Of course there is! For the time being, in a volume that does not distort the market, but the certificates of origin of various countries whose names end with the sound -āna are being “drawn”. Personally, I don’t understand that certain Belarusian products are also included in documents of Ukrainian origin. The good news: in such cases, not only conscience is on guard, but also mercantile interests, that is, other market participants do not want to experience unfair competition, therefore the responsible state institutions are supplied with information that would be difficult for them to obtain promptly under other circumstances.
Unfortunately, not all issues can be addressed with the sanctions tool. Therefore, answers “secondly” start with a definition. “Ethical” is a seemingly self-evident concept, but it can be interpreted in different ways. I will stick to the following definition: “Acting in such a way that the consequences of the action produce more good for the greater number and less harm for the fewer number.” In addition, I will add to what is emphasized in the commandments of Christianity, that it is about the nearest! Those closest to me are self-explanatory in this context – Residents of Latvia, Ukraine and our allied countries. And therefore, looking at the fact that the volume of alcoholic beverages exported to Russia is not decreasing, I am not filled with anger. On the contrary – there is even an attractive thought in our ears that at the same time we hear the Ukrainian murderers, extract currency from the aggressor country, which could otherwise be used to finance weapons and the Moldovan riots, and grow our own economy, which finances our defense. I know it sounds naive, but the export of alcohol really does not concern me, as well as the entry of drugs and other products harmful to health into the aggressor country and the liver problems of its potential warriors, however, it is different with the export of electronics and mechanical devices, which, although shrunk by half, continues steadily . Seeing how dependent the forest industry of Russia and Belarus is on Western technologies and how difficult it is for them to reorient themselves to Chinese solutions, it is clear that a complete decline in the export of such devices would have a great impact on the economy of the aggressor countries.
However, if you have to answer yes or no to Ms. Krūtaine’s question, then it would be good for them not to drink our alcohol either, due to the general attitude. With the self-propelled, there is a greater chance of causing mass poisoning in the ranks of Russian warriors.