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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
U.S. to
Protect Forests in Trade Talks
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
12/6/99
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
My oh
my, how much difference a week makes.
The Clinton
administration
now assures us they are committed to protecting the
World's
forests in upcoming trade talks.
Certainly this is due to a
deeply
felt attachment to the Earth's ecological systems, and has
nothing
to do with that little tussle down in Seattle.
Whatever the
motivation,
progress towards ubiquitous support for forest
conservation
continues due to your commitment.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: U.S. to Protect Forests in Trade Talks
Source: Environment New Service,
http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: December 6, 1999
WASHINGTON,
DC, December 6, 1999 (ENS) - United States Trade
Representative
Charlene Barshefsky says the Clinton administration is
committed
to protecting the world's forests in the next round of
trade
liberalization negotiations in the World Trade Organization,
whenever
they occur.
The
World Trade Organization's Seattle ministerial meeting ended in
an
embarrassing failure late Friday after the WTO's 135 members were
unable
to agree on the framework for a future round of global trade
talks.
The four-day ministerial, which started with street
demonstrations
against the WTO and its free trade agenda, wrapped up
with a
decision to suspend the discussions and to re-start them again
at WTO
headquarters in Geneva at date to be determined.
But
whenever new trade talks begin, the United States remains
committed
to ensuring efforts to liberalize trade will not compromise
protection
of the world's forests, Barshefsky said Friday as the
talks
collapsed.
Barshefsky
and George Frampton, acting chair of the Council on
Environmental
Quality on Trade Liberalization and Forest Protection,
said
reductions in tariffs, as currently proposed, will not create
major
environmental risks, but will most likely affect the types of
timber
products traded and not the levels of the timber harvest.
Environmentalists
fear lower tariffs will lead to increases in timber
harvesting
worldwide and additional threats to forest ecosystems.
Activists
espousing this viewpoint were among more than 50,000
protesters
in Seattle last week whose activities blocking access of
delegates
to meeting halls and hotels triggered the declaration of a
state
of emergency.
Yet a
U.S. government study of tariff reduction in the forest
products
sector released in October found that the forest products
initiative
presented minimal environmental risks.
Environmentalists
have also expressed concern that the negotiations
might
lead to the elimination of measures needed to protect forests.
Such
measures include ecolabeling programs and the ability to protect
against
exotic pests brought into the United States on imported logs.
These
and other types of measures that can have an impact on trade
but are
not tariffs are collectively known as non-tariff measures.
The
United States has pledged to oppose non-tariff measures that
would
undermine the legitimate measures taken by countries to protect
their
forest resources, Barshefsky said.
The
U.S. forest industry has expressed a strong opinion in favor of
accelerated
tariff liberalization (ATL). W. Henson Moore, head of the
American
Forest & Paper Association said the government study's
finding
that the ATL is not likely to alter the proportion of world
timber
harvest in developing countries dispels the contention of
environmental
groups that tariff liberalization leads to forest
degradation
in environmentally sensitive countries.
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