PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release
4 November 1999

Today forest protection activists from around the world will join together in a day of Education and Action against the WTO’s Threat to Forests. Environmentalists will let their governments and the world know that they oppose agreements that benefit multinational timber corporations at the expense of ancient forests, forest communities and threatened eco-systems. In Brussels forest activists will present a statement to the European Commission asking them not to sign an agreement for further elimination of tariffs on forest products at the upcoming WTO Ministerial in Seattle at the end of November. The statement was signed by over 140 NGOs, including the environmental NGO Fern, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace International, World Rainforest Movement and WWF International.

FORESTS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK AT THE WTO?
A primary target for the Day of Education and Action is an "Accelerated Tariff Liberalisation Proposal' (ATL), which would eliminate all import tariffs for forest products in the coming four years. This proposal has been put on the WTO's agenda by the US, Canada and Indonesia, the world's main timber exporters. Japan opposes the agreement and the EU's position is ambiguous.

Logging is currently the main threat to the remaining primary forests left on earth. According to a recent US government impact assessment, the ATL would lead to a sharp increase in logging in China, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sweden. Harvests in Finland and Sweden would increase by 7.6 and 11 percent by 2010. The ATL would impact our ability to protect the world's remaining forests. The WTO might, at its next meeting, also threaten our ability to draft necessary forest protection laws by labelling them "non tariff barriers to trade" and therefore illegal under WTO rules. Vital forest protection laws and other initiatives that could be eliminated include: laws to protect forests from invasive pests, recycled content requirements for office and newspaper, forest certification schemes and bans on the export of raw logs and wood chips.

The EU has so far made conflicting statements on its intentions towards the ATL proposal. In their statement NGOs call on the members of the EU

"to refrain from negotiating a forest products agreement until an independent assessment has been made of the social and environment impacts of trade liberalisation on forests and forest peoples, and effective steps have been taken to mitigate those impacts on, and avoid future harm to, forest ecosystems and peoples."

European forest activists are meeting today in Brussels to discuss the possible impacts of the WTO on forests world-wide in a seminar organised by Fern.

For more information, please contact:
Fern, Saskia Ozinga, tel: +44 777 59 48 103
Friends of the Earth Europe, Alexandra Wandel, tel: +32-2-542 01 85
Greenpeace International, Patrick Anderson, tel: +31 20 523 6222