Briefing On The WTO Free Logging

in the run up to the global action on June 18th, here’s a

- how global capital is preparing to decimate the world's remaining forests.

The World Trade Organisation

Formed in 1994 as the sister organisation to the IMF and World Bank, the WTO has a mandate to remove any barriers to free trade that member countries might have. Over the last 5 years, the organisation has been gradually negotiating free trade agreements in more and more sectors of the economy. It is the WTO that is introducing sanctions that are causing the current EU-US ‘banana war’, and the threat of a much larger trade war is one of the main reasons why stopping genetic engineering in its tracks is proving so difficult.

Free Logging Agreement

In the next round of negotiations in Seattle from November 30th - December 3rd this year one of the new areas to be targeted will be the forest products industry. And, as in every case where the interests of big business encounter those of the environment, the results are likely to be fairly dire.

This, like all WTO agreements, seeks to eliminate ‘tariff’ and ‘non-tariff’ barriers to trade. A tariff is like a tax that a country imposes on a certain import, often to discourage its consumption over what is made at home By eliminating them, prices come down, stimulating consumption.

This means the further growth of the forestry industry which is bad news for forests and the ecosystems and communities they support. Whether it’s old growth logging or the planting of fast-growing sterile eucalyptus monocultures, the global timber trade is exceedingly destructive.

By making free trade easier, multinational companies can invest and disinvest in countries far more easily. As well as the direct social effects, e.g. mass redundancies, when a company pulls out of an area, the threat of disinvestment often encourages countries to drop environmental and social protection legislation in order to maintain competitiveness in the global economy.

Equally disturbing is what could be made illegal as a ‘non- tariff barrier to trade’. Whatever the WTO decides are ‘unreasonably high standards of forest protection’ are potentially challengeable by WTO rules Another likely victim of free trade is eco-labelling. The WTO only recognises product labels which indicate how a product performs on the job (ie. as a two-by-four or as pulp for paper). The WTO sees all other kinds of labels as barriers to trade. It is likely that the WTO will accuse certification and ecolabelling such as Forest Stewardship Council’s international scheme of certifying sustainably produced timber of violating WTO trade laws.

As the volume of forest product trade increases, so do the chances of alien species invasions. Exotic beetles, moths, fungi, and other pests often "hitchhike" on international shipments of wood products that have not been processed or treated with chemicals and fumigants. When imported into a country where forest ecosystems do not have natural immunities against these pests, large-scale infestations, disease and destruction result (this phenomena, known as bioinvasion, is currently the second largest cause of species loss, after deforestation). Currently many countries insist on wood being chemically treated before import to rid it of destructive pests, but it is likely that these regulations will also be declared barriers to trade under the new agreement. WTO agreements usually stipulate that the least trade restrictive of all import restrictions must be the only acceptable policy for governments to take.

The Investment Agenda

As well as the forest products agreement, expect a new ‘Millennium Round’ of WTO talks to be announced at Seattle. This will be a vast extension of the WTO’s powers, in effect a resurrection of the MAI, the investment treaty that was defeated last autumn. This will of course affect all areas of life, but to stick with the effect on forests...

Firstly, investors will be granted equal rights, regardless of which country they come from. Therefore foreign multinationals can buy up forests around the world, and if they are designated as indigenous or nature reservations then they have the cash and power to challenge that designation and ensure they get the right verdict. Also, investing companies would be able to challenge governments if they believed they had introduced regulations which denied the company profits which were rightfully theirs - this means if a government were to bring in new environmental standards they would have to compensate the companies that lost out.

Action Points:

* Leeds EF! is producing a guide with more information on this agreement as well as details on specific companies which have offices and premises here in the UK. Often actions against companies will also be in solidarity with campaigns in other countries - most multinational timber companies are up to something dodgy somewhere in the world. For your free copy, get in touch with Leeds EF! at the Action Update address. It will be available from mid-May.

* A SEED Europe have a new book out - ‘Europe’s forests -A Campaign Guide’ which contains lots of information on all aspects of forest stuff

* People’s Global Action is the global network of grassroots groups resisting the WTO and neoliberal economics. Contact them for events happening in Seattle and globally during the summit.

(all addresses on contacts list)