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Background
Increasingly, timber is a globally traded commodity, along with its
derived products. Trade flows, especially of processed timber goods,
have grown over the last decades. In this context, some stakeholders
believe that despite attempts to minimize obstacles to the free flow of
timber products, emerging measures, notably non-tariff ones, are
increasingly affecting trade in these products. However, others feel
that challenges facing the sector, such as forest degradation and loss,
bio-diversity impoverishment, promotion of sustainable management of
forests and climate change warrant new thinking.
After discussing this dilemma at its annual market discussions in 2009,
the UNECE Timber Committee called for a “multi-stakeholder workshop in
2010, dedicated to tariff and non-tariff trade barriers and emerging
trade regulations on timber”. This one-day workshop co-organized with
the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the WTO Secretariat
will be held on 23 March 2010, just before the meeting of the FAO/UNECE
Working Party on Forest Economics and Statistics.
Objectives
Led by expert presentations, workshop participants will discuss the
economic impacts of trade and trade-related measures on timber markets,
taking into account the role of trade in timber markets and the link
between trade liberalization and key challenges facing the forest-based
sector. The programme will allow ample time for discussion and frank
exchanges of views, aiming at a broader appreciation of the situation.
Topics
The workshop will cover three main topics: non-tariff measures, tariff
measures, and subsidies. Presentations and discussion are expected to
cover the following items:
Tariffs, including the status of on-going WTO negotiations
Export restrictions
Subsidies
Measures to address illegal logging and associated trade such as US
Lacey Act amendment and EU FLEGT Action Plan “due diligence” proposal
Other non tariff measures including public procurement regulations
Phytosanitary measures
Expected audience
Members of the FAO/UNECE Working Party on Forest Economics and
Statistics, trade and forest policy experts from governments, research
and academia, industry representatives, NGO representatives. The
workshop will be open to representatives and experts from all over the
world.
More information and registration
> Workshop website
This event is sponsored by the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands in Geneva
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> Workshop website
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