The EU could soon ban the transportation of manganese ore to Russia under efforts to weaken Moscow's arms industry. But a ban could hurt Latvia which is calling on Brussels to find a different solution.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Riga on the Baltic Sea. In this port, 3,000 ships are loaded and unloaded every year.
00:07 There's cargo to and from everywhere, including goods transported to Russia, such as manganese
00:13 ore from Africa. 1.4 million tons went there last year. Exports have been rising since
00:20 Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
00:23 Approximately 80% of our inhabitants would support sanctioning manganese ore on the national
00:31 level. To do that, we have a tool, a very democratic one, in Latvia, where we can gather
00:39 signatures of at least 10,000 residents in Latvia. And then this initiative would be
00:45 submitted to the parliament, and they would have to look into it.
00:51 Manganese is used for steel and weapons production in Russia. It strengthens the products. And
00:56 for now, transporting the metal via the EU is legal.
01:02 Being aware that this ore can be used for military purposes, for producing artillery
01:11 or armor that can be turned against our people and our democracies, it's just unthinkable.
01:17 It's absolutely scandalous.
01:20 Thousands of Latvians work in the port. Riga is benefiting from trade with Russia. That's
01:26 why Transparency International doubts the Latvian government will restrict manganese
01:31 trade.
01:32 We have one oligarchainar Schlesser sitting in the parliament, and even a couple of weeks
01:39 ago, also with this manganese ore topic, he was telling in the parliament that we should
01:47 keep economic cooperation with Russia, otherwise our economy will collapse. But that's not
01:54 true.
01:55 But that doesn't seem to be true, concludes a study by the Latvian Central Bank. It says
02:02 that Latvia's GDP would see only a slight decline if it ended trade with Russia. However,
02:08 Latvia's ports would suffer if trade were restricted. That's what happened after Russia
02:13 annexed Crimea in 2014 and the government reduced trade with Russia by 60%.
02:22 We are following the World Trade Organization rules, European Commission rules and all the
02:29 sanctions. And in this case, all this is in full compliance.
02:35 Meanwhile, there's a debate in the media about whether sanctions on Russia need to
02:39 be tightened. Tax and trade expert Yanis Taukac is part of the discussion.
02:45 This manganese ore is just one example that the trade with Russia should be stopped if
02:53 we don't want the war to be in our home. And this is the cheapest way currently to
03:00 stop the war.
03:02 But unilateral action to restrict the manganese ore trade to Russia is unlikely. The Latvian
03:08 government is calling for a European solution, coordinated with the German government and
03:14 other EU countries.
03:16 I think we have to admit that the most efficient way would be to include manganese ore in the
03:23 EU sanctions list. Why? Because we have experienced quite a number of situations when Russia tries
03:31 to put EU member countries against each other.
03:36 If Brussels banned the transportation of manganese ore to Russia, the Kremlin would have to find
03:41 alternative routes elsewhere. That would cost time and money.
03:46 I think we have to admit that the most efficient way would be to include manganese ore in the
03:53 EU sanctions list. Why? Because we have experienced quite a number of situations when Russia tries