WTO in Seattle: Fewer Timber Tariffs, Fewer Forests, Activists Warn
11/30/99
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Title: WTO in Seattle: Fewer timber tariffs, fewer forests,
activists warn
Source: Seattle Times
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 30, 1999
Byline: Lynda V. Mapes
If tariff barriers fall, trees will fall with them, environmentalists
warn.
U.S. forest-product companies are pushing for a worldwide elimination
of tariffs to build export markets for U.S.-made forest products. The
U.S. government is pushing for an accelerated elimination of tariffs
on forest products during the World Trade Organization's ministerial
meeting this week in Seattle.
Forest products include anything that can be made from trees,
including paper, pulp, cardboard and plywood.
While the U.S. imposes virtually no tariffs on the import of forest
products, U.S. producers face high tariffs that frustrate export
trade with other nations, especially in Asia.
Barry Polsky of The American Forest & Paper Association in
Washington, D.C., said U.S. producers need to build their markets
overseas to enlarge an industry that employs 1.5 million people
nationwide.
"The U.S. is a mature market to our industry. It's not going to grow
unless we have open markets in Asia and Europe," Polsky said.
The balance of trade in forest products continues to shift away from
the U.S. as Asian producers protect their markets with tariffs as
high as 40 percent on some value-added products, such as plywood.
That's a recipe for stagnation for U.S. producers.
But environmentalists warned at a news conference in Seattle
yesterday that if tariff barriers fell, logging would increase.
According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the
Council on Environmental Quality, eliminating tariffs would increase
world trade in forest products by 2 percent and the timber harvest by
0.5 percent. Aggregate world production and consumption of forest
products would grow by less than 1 percent.
The effect on U.S. forests is expected to be nil, but the U.S.
government estimates some countries would see increases in logging.
In Indonesia, the rate would go up about 3 percent, and in Malaysia a
little more than 4 percent by 2010.
That's because those countries already have some of the lowest
forest-product production costs in the world.
However, logging would decrease in other countries, including Mexico
and Russia.
Demand for cheap plywood and other forest products from low-cost
producing nations like Indonesia would jump if tariffs fell,
environmentalists predict.
That's bad news for tropical forests. Indonesia's cost of production
is low, in part, because of its lax environmental standards. "This is
the last place in the world where you want to increase logging," said
Jim Jontz of American Lands Alliance, which opposes tariff
elimination.
The push also would be on to increase forestry production on
plantations. Environmentalists say converting natural forests into
plantations would hurt the environment through loss of biological
diversity and habitat for native species.
Randy Hayes of Rainforest Action Network accused the U.S. government
of promoting "slaughter logging" that would destroy native habitats
in tropical rain forests.
Patti Goldman of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund warned that the
Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization could lead to further
attacks on environmental safeguards, including the ability of
governments to enact and enforce laws that protect their forests and
encourage sustainable logging.
An executive order issued by President Clinton on Nov. 16 requires a
review of the environmental effects of future trade agreements, but
doesn't address trade agreements already in effect, or more
fundamental problems, Goldman said.
Lynda Mapes' phone-message number is 206-464-2736.