The main pillar of the Finnish economy drifted into an absurd situation

China’s state-run machinery pushes goods to the world at an alarming rate. Now the US customs wall is forcing the eastern giant to look for new markets, and cheap Chinese cardboard is increasingly flowing to Europe. The game has changed.

At the same time, China has increased its own pulp capacity. The world’s largest buyer is no longer what it used to be, and Finnish forest companies are threatening to lose one of their traditional revenue drivers.

The European Union’s ambitious climate measures are justified in themselves. Climate change will inevitably have a profound effect, especially on the lives of future generations.

However, sometimes it seems that the EU has so much momentum that not all decisions necessarily age well.

An example of this is the casting error of emissions trading, which punishes pioneers. If the factory becomes completely emission-free, it falls out of the scope of the system’s subsidies.

When you add to this the cutting restrictions imposed by the Brussels cabinets, the Finnish forest debate has drifted into an absurd career.

Since the time of autonomy, wood has been an important pillar of the Finnish economy and well-being. Our starting point is that the forest owner decides about his own property.

The giants of geopolitics, China and the USA, drag home the sadness whenever it comes to the interest of their own country. Finnish and EU decision-makers must wake up to the same realism.

The living conditions of our industry should not be crumbled with our own hands in Brussels. There are enough challenges anyway.