WTO Logging Agreement Threatens Forests & Environment
11/26/99
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Title: WTO Logging Agreement Threatens Forests & Environment
Source: Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 26, 1999
Byline: Victor Menotti
The World Trade Organisation's Global Free Logging Agreement is such
a threat to forests and the environment that more than 130 concerned
groups have signed a letter demanding an immediate halt to the FLA
negotiations.
The World Trade Organisation's Global Free Logging Agreement (FLA)
would accelerate the logging of native forests, weaken environmental
protections, and open the door to invasive species. The FLA is seen
as such a threat that more than 130 groups have signed a letter
demanding an immediate halt to the FLA negotiations. (No
environmentalists, workers, or community leaders were represented at
the FLA discussions.)
US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky has told Congress that
the FLA is a 'top negotiating priority'. Barshefsky's advisers
include executives from logging giants like Weyerhaeuser, Boise
Cascade, International Paper, and Georgia-Pacific.
International Paper CEO John Dillon has informed Washington that
signing the FLA 'is essential to the future success and growth of the
US forest products industry'.
Meanwhile, Deputy US Trade Representative Susan Esserman has assured
timber lobbyists that the FLA is 'very important for us and for the
President' and has promised to 'seek conclusion on the agreement' in
Seattle.
More Logs, More Bugs
The FLA would eliminate tariff barriers (such as import taxes) and
non-tariff barriers - that could include any environmental laws
deemed to 'inhibit' or 'distort' trade. Industry studies project that
eliminating tariffs on wood products could increase consumption by 3-
4% worldwide.
The timber industry hopes to target raw-log export bans, government
purchasing rules favouring recycled paper or timber from certified-
sustainable sources, and local building codes that require the use of
non-wood materials.
Non-tariff measures up for elimination include measures to prevent
the entry of invasive species. 'Bioinvasion' is now the second
leading cause of species extinction in the world, after habitat
destruction. The WTO currently sets strict limits on what regulations
governments can use to prevent the entry of invasive species. The US
and other countries are advancing proposals that could challenge even
these surviving safeguards as a barrier to trade.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - another emerging form of
biological pollution - are also under discussion at the WTO. The
introduction of GMO crops and trees poses risks to native fields and
forests. GMOs may migrate, mutate, multiply, and transfer
manufactured traits to other organisms and species - with
unpredictable results. The WTO is proposing new global trade laws
that would prevent governments from stopping GMOs from entering their
country.
Opening Up Native Forests
The WTO is preparing to introduce a broad agenda to promote and
protect multinational logging investments. Brazil, Russia, Mexico,
Indonesia, and other countries with significant tracts of native
forest have traditionally limited foreign access to natural
resources to prevent their exploitation by absentee owners. Proposed
WTO investment rules would remove such government controls, require
nations to treat foreign investors on the same terms as domestic
ones, and institutionalise cut-and-run logging around the globe.
The WTO's proposed investment rules would remove the ability of
governments to promote sustainable natural resource use. A WTO
proposal to ban 'performance requirements' would outlaw many of the
preconditions that governments demand from foreign investors to
ensure that some benefit actually accrues to the local economy.
Examples include the promise to transfer green technologies, the
commitment to export a certain percentage of production (important
for countries in debt), or the assurance of remaining in a given
community for an agreed period.
Weakened Eco-Laws
The WTO plans to redefine the 'expropriation' of a foreign investment
so broadly that it would allow any corporation to sue any national
government for enacting measures that 'have the effect' of reducing
the foreign investor's 'planned profits'. Such investment rules
already exist under NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement].
If adopted as a global rule under the WTO, laws designed to protect
forests (or indeed, anything in the public interest) could be
challenged as an illegal 'expropriation', requiring full cash
compensation to the foreign investor.
A showdown is coming as the WTO prepares to establish new pro-
industry rules on logging practices that would override the more
rigorous environmental standards set by the Forest Stewardship
Council.
The US timber industry now says that it cannot compete against
logging operations in countries with little or no environmental
regulation or enforcement. US timber interests have specifically
named the US Endangered Species Act as the biggest burden on US
competitiveness.
Timber interests now want a set of harmonised global rules to 'level
the playing field'. If adopted, these industry-set WTO standards
would lock in weak protections in countries with major reserves of
native resources (Canada, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, and
Russia), while exposing relatively stronger protections (such as
exist in the US) to challenge under the WTO.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?
US corporations are trying to promote this WTO agreement as a job-
creating initiative for US workers, but industry trends make this
claim suspect.
In recent years, billions of dollars were invested in new paper-mills
in 'cheap-labour' countries like Indonesia and Brazil. The logic of
global capitalism will likely send most of the new jobs to 'lower-
cost' nations.
Whether you are working to protect endangered species, reduce wood-
fibre consumption, promote certified timber, encourage community-
based forestry, or protect old-growth trees, the WTO is on a
collision course with your efforts.
In recent years, the international forest protection community has
developed a voice to influence the lending policies of the World Bank
and other multilateral development institutions.
We now must do the same with trade and investment policy - the new
arena of forest protection.
-ends-
About the writer: Victor Menotti is Director of the International
Forum on Globalisation's Environment Programme.
The above article first appeared in Earth Island Journal (Winter
1999-2000, 'The WTO and the Forests').