At the year-end the Russian freeze of its wood export duties took effect, and when the country joins the WTO, the wood export duties are expected to be lowered. Hardwood duties will be reduced by three-thirds and softwood duties by half.For the forest industry in Finland, which is the country in the Nordic region that has been hit hardest by the Russian export duties on wood, it would have been necessary to implement lower duties much sooner than the the time for Russia's WTO membership, which can be realized in about a year, according to the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.“It would have been good if the lower duties, which were agreed to in negotiations between the EU and Russia last November, could have taken effect immediately at the beginning of 2011 instead of after about a year, because this would have promoted the revival of our forest industry cooperation," says Timo Jaatinen, Director General of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation."Russia has considered forest industry investments important, but these cannot be implemented if export duties and other trade barriers that hamper activities are not removed as quickly as possible. Russia should also focus on the development of its infrastructure and boost confidence in the availability of wood raw material for decades to come,” Jaatinen adds.Timber export duties will not be removed in their entirety once Russia joins the WTO, but the expectation is that they will not target the timber grades, which are imported by Finland, as heavily as has been the case up to now. The duties levied on hardwood will reduce by about three-thirds and softwood duties will be cut by about half.The forest industry of Finland has adjusted its operations to reduced Russian timber imports and largely relies on domestic raw materials. How much imports recover depends on the cost of Russian timber as well as on the industry's export developments and the availability and cost of domestic timber.Russian timber imports to Finland now only account for around ten percent of total Finnish wood consumption.