[asia-apec 456] Re: SIGN ON to Stop APEC From Endangering Forests
Lyuba Zarsky, Co-Director
LZarsky at nautilus.org
Wed Jun 3 07:41:11 JST 1998
Lyuba Zarsky
CoDirector
Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development
Berkeley, California
At 01:06 PM 6/2/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear friends,
>
>From June 18 - 22, APEC Leaders will meet in Malaysia to
>finalize a proposal to liberalize trade in forest products.
>
>The goal of this plan -- called Early Voluntary Sectoral
>Liberalization (EVSL) -- is to make it cheaper and easier
>for corporations to harvest and sell more wood on the Pacific Rim.
>The plan will eliminate environmental and other regulations,
>making our forests more vulnerable to overcutting, disease
>and mismanagement that ever before.
>
>Unless we can intervene now, APEC Leaders will approve the
>liberalization plan later this month.
>
>Please sign your organization on to this letter asking the U.S.
>Vice President Al Gore to stop APEC's plan to liberalize forest
>trade on the Pacific Rim before it's too late.
>
>Simply reply to this message with your name, title, organization,
>and location (city, country).
>
>For the Forests!
>
>Paige Fischer
>Pacific Environment and Resources Center (PERC)
>Sausalito, California, <perc at igc.org>
>
>DRAFT * * * * *DRAFT * * * * * DRAFT* * * * * DRAFT * * * * *DRAFT
>June 8, 1998
>
>The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr.
>Vice President of the United States
>The White House
>Washington D.C. 20001
>
>Dear Mr. Vice President,
>
>We undersigned # organizations, representing millions of citizens
>concerned about the global environment, write to express our serious
>reservations about a current US Trade Representative (USTR) initiative
>to liberalize trade in forest products within the Asia Pacific Economic
>Cooperation (APEC). If carried out as currently planned, APEC's Early
>Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization (EVSL) for Forest Products will put
>Pacific Rim forests in jeopardy. We urge you to intervene before APEC
>Leaders approve the final work plan and begin implementing it at the
>June 18-23, 1998 Senior Officials Meeting in Malaysia.
>
>We do not believe that all liberalization of trade in the forest
>products sector is bad for the environment. For example, the Clinton
>Administration's proposal to eliminate US Forest Service forest road
>building subsidies will likely result in fewer destructive roads in
>pristine roadless areas. However, we find USTR's aggressive attempts
>to liberalize forest products trade without accounting for and
>protecting against potential negative environmental and social
>consequences of elimination of specific tariff and non-tariff measure
>to be reckless and deeply troubling.
>
>Many environmental groups have called on the USTR to halt its all-or-
>nothing advance toward liberalizing the forest products sector in APEC
>until environmental and social consequences are identified and safeguards
>are put into place. On March 25, 1998, 115 environmental organizations
>sent a letter to Ms. Charlene Barshefsky, U.S. Trade Representative,
>expressing our concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Barshefsky has not provided
>the groups a response. On April 21, 1998, several national environmental
>organizations expressed many of the same concerns in testimony before the
>International Trade Commission, which is conducting a study for USTR
>about potential impacts of APEC EVSLs. However, at the request of Ms.
>Barshefsky, the results of this study will be concealed from the public.
>
>Pacific Rim forests under APEC's influence comprise some of the most
>ecologically important in the world. APEC countries are home to 63%
>of the world's remaining "Frontier Forests," which are defined as large
>relatively intact primary forest ecosystems that provide habitat to rare
>and endangered species, sustenance to communities, and carbon sinks that
>mitigate against global climate change. From the ancient temperate
>forests of the US Pacific Northwest and Chile, to the tropical moist
>forests of South East Asia, these ecosystems are threatened by the
>combined forces of increasing production and consumption of wood
>products that would result from a poorly executed liberalization of
>this sector.
>
>Pacific Rim logging -- to satisfy the world's increasing demand for
>wood and paper products -- is expected to expand dramatically in the
>coming decade. Industry and intergovernmental projections, including
>those of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), indicate that
>consumption of paper and paperboard products world-wide will rise as
>much as 70% to 80% over 1990 levels by the year 2010, the bulk of
>which is expected to occur on the Pacific Rim.
>
>As currently envisioned, APEC trade liberalization in the forest products
>sector will exacerbated growing consumption and production of forest
>products on Pacific Rim forests. According to materials provided by the
>American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA; enclosed), "The wood and
>paper sectors in the Asia-Pacific region are experiencing dynamic growth
>and are expected to continue to boom in the next decade." This AF&PA
>material boasts that production of paper and paper board production
>increased dramatically in the European Union, the US and Canada following
>the elimination of tariffs through other trade bodies. A US Department
>of Agriculture study (enclosed) also indicates that an increased level
>of timber extracted from ecologically sensitive Pacific Northwest old
>growth forests would result following the elimination of restrictions
>on unprocessed logs from public lands.
>
>The APEC Forest Products EVSL also could weaken many regulations that
>are in place to protect forests. These regulations include sanitary
>and phytosanitary rules on imports that protect forests against exotic
>pests and restrictions on exports of unprocessed logs. Based on the
>biosecurity risks posed by invasive species to Pacific Northwest forests,
>environmental organizations have obtained a Federal Court injunction
>against the issuance of new permits to import unprocessed logs from
>Siberia (Russian Far East), New Zealand and Chile. Chile is attempting
>to intervene in this lawsuit on the grounds that the injunction is a
>barrier to free trade, and New Zealand has recently stated its intention
>to use the APEC EVSL process to undermine this important environmental
>protection regime.
>
>During the 50th Anniversary celebration of the international trading
>system in Geneva, President Clinton spoke to the importance of
>transparency in trade policy and also said, "[W]e must do more to ensure
>that spirited economic competition among nations never becomes a race
>to the bottom -- in environmental protection, consumer protections, or
>labor standards. We should be leveling up, not leveling down." The
>President's words offered environmentalists new hope of a fresh start
>toward an environmentally responsible trade policy.
>
>On April 1994, when you signed the Uruguay Round agreement in Marrakesh,
>Morocco, you stated, "...environmental protection is not a 'maybe,' it is
>a 'must.' And by working aggressively to improve the environment along
>with global trade, we will succeed." Your commitment to integrating
>environmental protection into trade regimes is extremely important if
>areas of global ecological significance, such as Pacific Rim forests,
>are to survive through the next century.
>
>We are ready to work with the Clinton Administration to make these words
>a reality. But by refusing to acknowledge any potential negative
>environmental impacts of the APEC Forest Products EVSL, USTR's actions
>flatly contradict the President's new commitments. We call upon you to
>intervene to halt USTR's pursuit of APEC forest products trade
>liberalization until the agency:
>
>1) Conducts an Environmental Impact Assessment for each tariff and
>non-tariff measure it seeks to eliminate;
>
>2) Engages a broad spectrum of civil society in all discussions of
>forest trade liberalization;
>
>3) Postpones all work on the APEC Forest Sector EVSL until all
>environmental impacts have been proven negligible and the public
>-- including independent forest ecologists and community leaders --
>have been fully informed.
>
>We would like to request a meeting with your staff to discuss potential
>remedies to this situation. Doug Norlen is available at (202) 785-8700
>to coordinate environmental organization participation in this meeting.
>
>Thank you for your attention in this matter.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>A. Paige Fischer, APEC Issues Coordinator, Pacific Environment and Resources
>Center, Sausalito, California
>
>Douglas Norlen, Policy Advisor, Pacific Environment and Resources Center,
>Sausalito, California
>
>* * * * *THIS IS A DRAFT DOCUMENT UNTIL FORMALLY SUBMITTED WITH ALL
>SIGNATURES TO THE WHITE HOUSE* * * * * *
>
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyuba Zarsky
Director
Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development
ph:+1 510.204.9296
fax:+1 510.204.9298
e-mail: lzarsky at nautilus.org
http://www.nautilus.org
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