Lithuanian government’s sanctions have banned Belarusian building materials from entering Lithuania as of March. But these materials can still be found on construction sites in the country.
The sanctions on Russian and Belarusian building materials came into force on March 9. But goods ordered before March 4 could still be shipped to Lithuania for at least three more months. Statistics showed that businesses took advantage of the transition period and more than doubled their imports from Belarus.
On a construction site in the suburbs of Vilnius, building blocks are stacked up. The label indicates that they were manufactured in Belarus on May 13 – after the March 4 deadline.
These materials should not have ended up in Lithuania, unless they were ordered before the sanctions were imposed, according to the Environment Ministry.
“If there was a signed contract that the blocks had already been bought and the money had been paid, then they could have entered,” Lina Lekunaite-Lukosiuniene, a spokesperson for the ministry, said.
Lithuanian customs also says it checks the date of the contract, not that of manufacture.
“Wood, metals or concrete products could have been manufactured after the sanctions were imposed. But the whole point is the contract between the two businesses,” said Rolandas Jurgaitis, a spokesman for the Customs Department.
Therefore, if the contract was concluded in March or earlier, goods from Belarus could travel to Lithuania until June 4. But the transition period has the opposite effect, according to the SEB Bank economist Tadas Povilauskas.
“It only increases the flow of money to the aggressor country in the short term. We have seen a significant surge in imports of many of the raw materials that we used to buy from Russia and Belarus during the transition period,” the economist said.
Official statistics showed that in March, imports of glass and glass products from Belarus increased by 143%, compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, imports of aluminium products increased by 117%, imports of iron and steel rose by 315%, and imports of machine parts were 383% higher. The sharpest jump of over 1000% was in the imports of Belarusian fats and oils.
All of these goods are on the sanctions list. According to Povilauskas, companies are trying to import as much of the soon-to-be-banned products while they still can.
Jurgaitis of the Customs Department says there are also attempts to forge documents and bring into Lithuania goods that are already banned without the transitional periods. During the last three months, customs officers have drawn up almost fifty administrative offences. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
