Poland strives to protect local economy by classifying material as strategic commodity

The Polish government is preparing new legislation aimed at restricting wood exports by classifying wood as a strategic national commodity. The initiative follows a significant increase in raw wood exports from Poland over the past year, sparking concern over domestic supply and economic impact and follows after the EU revealed import checks on forestation laws that critics deem to be too lax and politically motivated.

Speaking at a press conference on May 30, Development and Technology Minister Krzysztof Paszyk announced that the draft law has been in progress since March. As cited by the Polish TVP agency, he stated that the government intends to finalize and present the legislation "in the coming weeks."

The proposed law will designate wood as a commodity of strategic importance to Poland’s economy. The move is intended to secure domestic supply, ensuring the availability of raw wood for Polish manufacturers and businesses. Paszyk also said his ministry would advocate for similar measures at the European Union level to prevent exports of wood beyond the bloc's borders.

The new law will enhance government oversight of Poland’s wood supply chain by enabling authorities to trace the source and destination of wood more effectively.

"It is a real issue today. Plenty of wood disappears from the [local] market, finding its way to China, for example," Paszyk explained. He noted that a portion of the exported wood returns to Poland in the form of finished products, such as furniture made in Chinese factories.

“The wood industry in Poland is 40,000 economic entities, almost one million people employed directly and in cooperating companies. The wood industry [accounts for] over 5% of GDP,” Paszyk emphasised, underlining the sector’s importance to the national economy.

EU’s “lax” approach to regulating forestation laws

The government's move to regulate exports comes amid growing controversy in the European Union over a new anti-deforestation law unveiled earlier this month. The legislation imposes stricter import checks on products originating from countries considered to be a high risk to global forests. Products from nations deemed low or standard risk, however, will face fewer inspections.

Only four countries—Russia, Belarus, Myanmar, and North Korea—have been labelled as “high risk” under the EU’s framework, which exempts larger logging nations such as Brazil and Indonesia from heightened scrutiny. This has sparked criticism that the classification process is driven more by geopolitics than environmental science.

The article notes that environmental advocacy groups argue that many nations currently classified as low or standard risk should be held to stricter standards.

Reacting to the confirmation of the classification this week, Julian Oram, policy director at the environmental NGO Mighty Earth, called the decision “bizarre.”

“The EUDR [EU Deforestation Regulation] has become more about controlling political narrative than about controlling deforestation,” he said.

“Almost since it came into force in June 2023, the European Commission has been doing its utmost to bend the law to the will of those who don’t like it – namely companies and governments that preside over, and benefit from, the destruction of the world’s precious remaining forests.”

Although the European Commission has stated that the classifications were based on scientific data and evidence, the article recalls that documents released earlier this year indicated that political considerations were always likely to play a major role in how countries were categorised.

In January, 40 environmental organizations issued an open letter urging the commission to ensure that the risk assessment process was guided by objective environmental and human rights criteria.

“Benchmarking that does not reflect human rights and environmental risks in areas of production would undermine the objective of ending European complicity in deforestation,” the letter said.

By Nazrin Sadigova