Thanks to Gabrielius Landsbergis, relations with China are fading: For all the shops of Queen Martha, from whom all Landsbergiai live, China is irrelevant

 A shabby relationship 

Due to Lithuania's growing ties with Taipei, relations between Vilnius and Beijing have recently deteriorated. China sees Taiwan as a rebel province. Lithuania's relations with China deteriorated especially after the Landsbergis' decision to open a Taiwanese trade representative office in Vilnius. As a result, Beijing recalled its ambassador for consultations in August and instructed Lithuania to do the same. The country's Ambassador to China Diana Mickevičienė returned to Vilnius for consultations in early September. 

China has also recently taken steps to stop freight trains to Lithuania, stop issue food export permits, lower credit limits for Lithuanian companies and raise prices. "Lithuanian companies are stuck in the supply of components" - Ričardas Sartatavičius, the head of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, says that grain processing companies are already experiencing problems with the supply of raw materials from China, and timber companies are facing similar challenges. "There is a problem with the supply of raw materials in the grain sector, their sales to China in 2020 amounted to about 70 million Eur, 90% of the products purchased by Lithuanian companies from China are raw materials for feed production. There may be problems with that,” - R. Sartatavičius told BNS. "The wood also gets stuck, the Chinese refuse to buy our products there and in general they remove our goods from the shelves, there are such problems," - he said. According to R. Sartatavičius, grain farmers are also afraid of unfulfilled contracts - the value of some of which exceeded 30 million Eur, and Chinese partners refuse to start trading with Lithuanian companies. 

In addition, there were transportation problems, as trains did not run, transportation time was extended, and the transportation of goods in containers became more expensive. According to the head of the confederation, the dairy industry also sees threats. Its sales to China last year amounted to about 6.5 million Eur. Meat companies are also afraid of disruption, as the harmonization of certificates in this country alone took several years. The sector's sales to China last year amounted to 2 million Eur. Nevertheless, R. Sartatavičius emphasizes that the biggest problems currently arise due to the supply of components. "China is almost the only producer of some components, starting with metal products, equipment that is imported to Lithuania a lot, ending with microcomponents and chips," - he said. "Supply time from China increased from 32 to 70 days, and the price of containers increased 6 times, for Lithuania increased transit prices by 2,000 Eur last week. So far, neither Estonians nor Latvians are subject to such financial sanctions,” - said the head of the confederation. 

He pointed out that changing suppliers of components takes time and also requires working capital. According to R. Sartatavičius, in talks with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is being considered how to compensate part of the losses using the Taiwanese market. He did not name what kind of help the companies are requesting from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but, according to him, it is likely that the companies want to secure working capital. "We have suggestions that maybe funds should be used, for example, the fund of the State Investment Management Agency could allocate funds. Not to subsidize, but to allocate a working capital of between half a billion and a billion, if there were a possibility to have such funding. We would borrow, of course, but with a reasonable percentage," - he said."