-Caveat Lector- ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Margrete Strand-Rangnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: (wto) Articles on the Free Logging Agreement & Day of Action Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 22:10:12 -0500 (CDT) There has been a flurry of media recently between the release of "Our Forests at Risk: The World Trade Organization's Threat to Forest Protection," the September 15 International Day of Action and the Ruckus Camp in Washington. Below are three articles that highlight the issues. For more information on the Free Logging Agreement, contact Antonia Juhaz at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Articles Found Below: 9/14/99 Press Release for Our Forests at Risk 9/14/99 Inter Press Service WTO Rules Threaten Forests 9/15/99 Inter Press Service Big Business and Democracy on Collision Course at WTO Earthjustice: U.S.-Backed Trade Plan Puts World's Forests on the Chopping Block CONTACT: Ann Hedreen, 206-723-8228, for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund; Website: http://www.earthjustice.org DATELINE: SEATTLE, Sept. 14 At a press conference today, top forest advocates in the Northwest called on the Clinton Administration's trade negotiators to uphold United States environmental standards by immediately withdrawing one of their key agenda items for the upcoming World Trade Organization summit in Seattle. According to a new report released with a statement signed by more than 100 conservation groups around the world, forests should not be sacrificed blindly to the goal of free trade. The so-called "Global Free-Logging Agreement" should not be pursued until the environmental effects of existing trade rules and the new proposals have been fully reviewed and modified to protect forests. "Our Forests at Risk: The World Trade Organization's Threat to Forest Protection" spells out in sobering detail the likely consequences of what forest advocates call the "Global Free- Logging Agreement." The 32-page report was co-authored by Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, in collaboration with American Lands Alliance, Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange, International Forum on Globalization, Pacific Crest Biodiversity, and Pacific Environment and Resource Center. Environmental groups say that as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) , and a key proponent of the "Global Free-Logging Agreement, " the U.S. has the ability to affect trade policy and trade rules, and that our negotiators must do a better job of maintaining U.S. environmental standards. "Our trade negotiators are pushing a plan that would undermine the forest protections that U.S. citizens fought so hard to obtain," said Patti Goldman, managing attorney for EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund and a principal author of the report. "We are urging our government to look before we leap into loosening regulations designed to protect our environment and U. S. jobs. Our government should insist on a full review and modification of the WTO rules to ensure protection of our forests before pushing forward with new proposals." According to the report released today, the "Global Free-Logging Agreement" jeopardizes forests under the cloak of free trade and exemplifies a disturbing trend in the formulation of trade rules. It would wipe out important forest protections and accelerate the destruction of forests worldwide. Some of the key threats to Northwest, and the world's, forests include: Invasive Species Safeguards: Invasive species, such as the Asian Gypsy Moth, the Asian long-horned beetle and others, are the second leading threat to forest biodiversity. The best way to prevent these bio-invasions is to stop them at the border. But trade rules have made it difficult, if not impossible, to stop deadly infestations before they spread. Raw Log Export Bans: Washington State and the U.S. have banned the export of raw logs from public lands in the Western U.S. The goal is to reduce the overall demand for logging and to enable domestic mills to benefit from the logging that is done. Trade rules prohibit such bans, and Japan is already threatening to challenge the U.S. ban. Green Procurement: Through green procurement, governments use their purchasing power to increase demand for recycled paper and decrease consumption of products from native and unsustainably managed forests. Recycled content requirements are firmly in place for federal, state and local government procurement throughout the U.S. But under WTO trade rules, such regulations can be challenged on the grounds that they discriminate against countries that log native forests. Eco-labeling and Forest Certification: Eco-labeling enables consumers to find and buy environmentally friendly products. Forest certification reveals whether forest products have been produced in a sustainable and environmentally sound manner. Under WTO rules, eco- labeling and forest certification can be challenged because they distinguish between forest products based on how they are produced. Foreign Investor Rights vs. U.S. Sovereignty: Another WTO proposal that threatens forest protections is the introduction of investment provisions that would expand the rights of foreign timber companies and allow them to challenge environmental restrictions on logging. Trade Agreements Without Environmental Safeguards: The Global Free-Logging Agreement would increase logging without requiring that the logging will be done in a sustainable manner. The report provides an example of the environmental casualties of such unsustainable logging of British Columbia forests for export to the United States. Joe Scott, Conservation Director of the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and co-author of the report commented, "Here in the Northwest and across the U.S. we are struggling to save our remaining vestiges of ancient forests, and working to save increasing numbers of endangered fish and wildlife from extinction. It's extremely discouraging that in the face of this struggle, our own government is pushing an agreement that would discourage sustainable forestry." "We are not opposed to trade, " added economist Dave Batker, director of the Asia-Pacific Environmental Exchange. "However, when the single-minded pursuit of free trade is elevated to supersede our own environmental standards, our government must be held accountable." For a copy of the report, the supporting statement and list of more than 100 signatory groups, and a list of experts on trade and the environment, call Ann Hedreen, EMS, 206-723-8228, or visit http://www.earthjustice.org. ENVIRONMENT-TRADE: WTO Rules Threaten Forests By Danielle Knight WASHINGTON, Sep. 14 (IPS) - The fate of the world's forests will be on the chopping block at top-level international talks during the upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), according to US environmental groups. ''The WTO threatens to fuel the destruction of the world's remaining forests,'' according to 'Our Forests At Risk,' released today by more than 100 environmental groups based mostly in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Negotiations on existing WTO rules and a new ''global, free logging agreement'' - proposed by the United States - are on the agenda for WTO negotiators who meet in Seattle at the end of November. The talks aim to liberalize trade or reduce tariffs in wood and paper products that could be devastating to countries' attempts to protect their forests and to limit demand, says a report, co-authored by Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance. The 32-page report says an accelerated tariff phase-out for wood products will only fuel consumption and demand that will increase logging operations, already endangering forests worldwide. The environmental groups outline the various protection measures for forests that could be dismantled by the trade body. These include the eco-labeling of wood and forest products and safeguards to prevent the importation of invasive pests. Over the last two decades of this century, rapid deforestation has taken an unprecedented toll, according to the report. A recent study by the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development showed that about 15 million hectares of forests - mostly in tropical regions - are being lost annually. ''It is also clear that the structural integrity of much of the forest cover that remains has deteriorated,'' the World Commission notes in the study. Contentious debate over trade and environmental protection can be expected when delegates gather for the WTO's third ministerial round of talks, to be held in Seattle Nov 29-Dec 3. Environmentalists point to numerous conservation measures that have been challenged at previous meetings and found to be "unfair trade barriers." Such was the fate of a US law designed to protect sea turtles which prohibited the import of shrimp from countries that do not require their fishing fleets to use devices that exclude the endangered turtles from their nets. The WTO found this to be an "unfair trade barrier." New trade negotiations could lead to similar dismantling of forest protections, according to the report. Restrictions or bans on imports of wood products designed to prevent the spread of pest species, such as the Asian Long-horned Beetle from other countries, would collide with restrictive WTO rules that require that regulations use the least trade restrictive means of achieving the regulatory goal. ''Invasive species are the second leading threat to forest biodiversity,'' says the report. ''The most effective way to prevent bio-invasions of forests is to prevent the entry and spread of invasive species.'' The Asian Long-horned Beetle, for example, which entered the United States in wood packaging material from Northeast Asia, first attacked hardwood species in New York City and Chicago. Difficult to eradicate, because it has no known natural enemies in this country and is resistant to pesticides, the insect now has been found in warehouses in more than two dozen cities. Export bans on unprocessed or raw logs cut on public lands could also be challenged under WTO rules, warns the report. ''Such bans reduce the demand for logging and enable domestic mills to reap the benefits of logging that is done,'' says the report. But, ''WTO rules prohibit such export bans.'' Japan already has threatened to invoke these rules to challenge the export bans for public lands as instituted by the states in the western United States. Government regulations that prohibit or limit the purchase of products from primary or unsustainably-managed forests, or that require the state to buy a certain percentage of recycled products, could also be challenged under WTO rules that prohibit different treatment of products based on the way the product is produced. ''Such rules are vulnerable to challenge on the ground that they discriminate against countries that log native forests,'' says the report. Labels and certification processes for wood and paper products from forests that are sustainably harvested could also be challenged by the WTO. The trade body creates obstacles for such eco-labeling because it is based on how the product is produced, say environmentalists. US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky has stated that pressing for the elimination of tariffs on forest products is one of the country's primary targets going into trade negotiations in November. But pushing for tariff elimination could magnify global consumption trends of wood and paper products. Already, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's 'State of the World's Forests 1999' report forecasts a 25 percent increase in worldwide industrial wood production and consumption by the year 2010. Without including forest conservation provision into the free-trade rules, tariff reduction will lead to the accelerated destruction of forests worldwide, says the report. According to the American Forest and Paper Association - a powerful industry group - a recent study by the Finnish consulting firm Jaakko Poyry estimates a 3-to-4 percent increase in the consumption of forest products as a result of tariff-free trade. ''Our trade negotiators are pushing a plan that would undermine our forest protections, despite broad public opposition,'' says Patti Goldman, managing attorney for EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund and principal author of the report. She says that current trade rules need to be assessed and repaired if needed, before pushing forward with new proposals. ''We are urging our government to look before we leap into loosening regulations on trade,'' Goldman says. Dave Batker, an economist who directs the Seattle-based Asia-Pacific Environmental Exchange stresses that his organisation is not opposed to trade. ''However, when the single-minded pursuit of free-trade is elevated to supercede our own environmental standards, our government must be held accountable,'' he adds. [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved September, 15, 1999 Big Business and Democracy on Collision Course at WTO By Danielle Knight WASHINGTON, Sep. 15 (IPS) - Union leaders, environmentalists and lawmakers joined hands here Wednesday to strengthen opposition to further liberalisation of trade rules at an upcoming session of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle. ''Big business and democracy are on a collision course, and democracy has been losing,'' said Ralph Nader, the well-known consumer advocate lawyer who heads a number of public interest groups in the United States. ''The WTO is the greatest surrender of our national, state and local sovereignty and subordinates our critical health, safety and environmental standards to the imperatives of international trade,'' Nader told a crowd of protesters at a rally on the steps of Congress. Elsewhere around the world, similar gatherings of more than 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called for a moratorium on further trade liberalization negotiations and an assessment of the impact of past trade rules. ''The WTO system, rules and procedures are undemocratic, non- transparent and non-accountable and have operated to marginalize the majority of the world's people,'' declared a statement released by environmental and public interest groups in more than 80 countries. Thousands of trade officials from more than 150 countries will gather in Seattle, Washington at the end of November for the Third WTO Ministerial conference - scheduled to be the largest international trade meeting held on US soil. US negotiators plan to launch sweeping new global trade expansion talks to reduce tariffs, unions, lawmakers, environmentalists and public interest groups say WTO rules should be overhauled because they undermine federal, state and local regulations and standards. The Geneva-based trade body, for example, ordered Europe to lift its ban on US beef treated with growth hormones, which some scientists believe may cause cancer. When the European Union refused to comply, the World trade Organisation allowed the United States to impose high tariffs on luxury imports from Europe. US environmentalists were further enraged last year when a WTO dispute panel ruled against a US law that requires all shrimp sold in this country to be caught in nets that have turtle escape devices. These devices could save the lives of nearly all of the 150,000 sea turtles that drown in shrimp nets each year, according to marine scientists. Human rights activists also were critical of WTO rules since, under the auspices of the organisation, some countries challenged US state, city and local laws that barred governments from spending public funds on businesses that invest in countries notorious for human rights abuses such as Burma and Nigeria. ''Instead of creating a global supermarket for US goods and services, we've created a system of rules that puts more emphasis on property rights than on human rights,'' said Sherrod Brown, a democratic congressman from Ohio. At Wednesday's rally, Brown joined other democratic representatives including Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and George Miller of California, in calling for a reassessment of past trade agreements before pushing ahead for any further reduction in trade barriers. Amid concern about the impact of economic globalisation, President Bill Clinton's previous efforts to obtain ''fast-track'' authority to negotiate new trade agreements - routinely granted to his four predecessors over the last 25 years - were defeated in the House during the past two years. Similar public opposition worldwide led to the defeat of the Multilateral Agreement on Investments proposed by the world's wealthiest industrialised nations of the Organisation of Economic Community and Development (OECD). Dubbed the 'corporate bill of rights' by activists, this treaty would give investors and corporations the right to sue governments if laws - including health and safety regulations - prohibited companies from making a profit. Unions fear that the MAI agenda will reappear within the upcoming trade negotations of the WTO and further override worker safety laws. ''We are having our complete sovereignty undermined,'' said James Hoffa Jr., president of the Teamsters Union, which represents more than one million members in Canada and the United States. ''Under the most conservative of tests the WTO has not worked and basic worker rights have come under attack.'' He pointed to the challenge coming from the WTO to France's ban on asbestos. Hoffa said the trade body also prohibited efforts to ban products made in developing countries by child labour. Other trade agreements, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), have only hurt the US economy, he said. ''In 1993, when we debated NAFTA we actually had a trade surplus with Mexico while today we have a 20 billion dollar trade deficit,'' he told the rally. He also said that, since the formation of NAFTA, there had been a trend toward lowering wages in the United States while US corporations fled to other countries in search of cheaper work- force and weaker labour standards. US companies already were using NAFTA rules to sue countries, declared concerned environmentalists who warned that this practice could spread to other countries as the WTO talks progressed. Under NAFTA, for ecample, when Canada moved to protect its citizens' health from a potentially harmful US fuel additive, the chemical's manufacturer, Ethyl Corp., sued on the grounds that this would obstruct free trade. In July it succeeded in overturning Canadian law. Metalclad, another U.S. firm, complained to NAFTA that it had been prevented from opening a waste disposal plant because of environmental zoning laws in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. ''In many ways, the WTO has failed the most conservative test of all: 'first, do no harm','' said Lori Wallach, director of the Washington-based Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. Opposition also was mounting in Congress regarding a proposed WTO agreement to eliminate global tariffs on paper and wood products, on the grounds that it could increase consumption and encourage unsustainable logging and violate existing US conservation laws. A bipartisan groups of 48 members of the House has sent a letter to President Clinton to withdraw from negotiations over the initiative until an environmental impact assessment is completed. ''The WTO was an experiment,'' said Antonia Juhasz, director of American Lands Alliance's international trade and forests programme. ''All we ask is that the world's governments step back and see how that experiment is going, before subjecting the world to new WTO agreements.'' Big business does not need a new ''bill of rights'' under the WTO, added Daniel Seligman, director of the responsible trade programme at the Sierra Club, a major environmental organisation. Multinational corporations ''need a new, enforceable code of corporate responsibilities,'' he said. Echoing the concerns of others at the rally, he said tariffs should not be phased out for forests, fisheries or other sectors ''until we fully understand the environmental impacts.'' (END/IPS/dk/mk/99) NEW CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION! On the Internet at http://www.tradewatch.org/publications/gtwpubs.htm FOR MULTIPLE COPIES CONTACT PUBLIC CITIZEN 202-588-1000 OR GO TO http://www.citizen.org/newweb/publicat.htm ********************************** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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