[asia-apec 456] Re: SIGN ON to Stop APEC From Endangering Forests

[Lyuba Zarsky, Co-Director]

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