By Danielle Knight

WASHINGTON, Mar. 15 (IPS) - Negotiations underway in Geneva at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to liberalise trade in wood products could lead to an increase in the devastation of forests around the globe, according to environmental groups.

While WTO members began a two-day ''high level symposium'' Monday on the conflict between trade and the environment, the US government continued to push for an agreement to eliminate or reduce tariffs global trade in wood products.

The agreement, strongly supported by the US paper and wood product industries, would make all kinds of wood products cheaper and easier to buy, therefore raising profits.

But environmentalists feared that, while the agreement would expand the market for forests products, it did not provide specific protections for endangered forests or sustainable logging practices.

Such provisions were needed because many of the world's tropical and temperate forests were disappearing due to logging, agriculture and development, environmental groups said..

''Liberalisation of the wood product trade will increase consumption, dilute forest management standards, and dismantle environmental regulations,'' said a statement released by the American Lands Alliance, the Pacific Environment and Resources Centre and the International Forum on Globalisation.

''The end result of this free trade agreement will be increased pressure on forest ecosystems.''

Washington unsuccessfully tried to eliminate tariffs on forest products at both the 1995 Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC).

Most recently, Japan strongly opposed the elimination of trade barriers on wood products for fear of damage of its own industries.

While the administration of President Bill Clinton acknowledged that clashes do arise between environmental protection and WTO trade rules, it did not see a conflict between environmental concerns and liberalising trade in wood products.

''Once we get these barriers down, countries are more likely to take an environmentally friendly approach as they look ahead in the long-term and plan domestic environmental policies accordingly,'' Don Phillips, an assistant US Trade Representative, told IPS.

US trade officials planned another push for free trade in wood products at the Third annual ministerial meeting of the trade body to be held in Seattle, Washington in late November and early December.

The administration's liberalisation drive had priority status with the U.S. paper and forest products industry, the largest in the world, intent on expanding into new markets. The industry also sought to increase lumber exports to Asia, after a dramatic fall because of the financial crisis in the region.

''We've supported a global, tariff-free market for forest products for some time, particularly in Asia where tariffs on these products are very high,'' says Barry Polski, spokesperson for the Washington-based American Forest and Paper Association, a powerful industry lobby group.

But environmentalists declared the reduced tariffs would fuel demand and consumption of wood products and lead to increased logging in the world's endangered old-growth and primary forests.

''Unfortunately, the agreement is silent on forest protection or sustainable logging practices,'' said Antonia Juhasz, director of international trade and forest programmes at American Lands Alliance, a Washington-based environmental organisation.

''Current logging practices have decimated the world's forests,'' she said. '' An increase in such unsustainable practices made possible through (this agreement) will hasten the deforestation of the world's native forests.''

According to World Resources Institute, almost one-half of the world's original forest cover has disappeared. At least 200 million hectares of forest were lost between 1980 and 1995 - an area larger than Mexico or Indonesia, says the 1997 United Nations Food and Agriculture's State of the World's Forests report.

Environmental organisations worry that at the WTO paper and wood product industry representatives will seek to eliminate environmental protections such as timber trade regulations, forest management standards and building codes that discourage the use of imported or endangered timber.

Proposed bans of the use of endangered tropical wood for benches and boardwalks and other city projects in the US cities of Los Angeles and New York, for example, could be found to be barriers to trade and in violation of WTO rules, groups fear.

Trade restrictions on wood products that are likely to carry destructive pests known as invasive species could also be considered barriers to trade, according to Victor Mendotti, director of the environment programme at the California-based International Forum on Globalisation.

One such pest is the Asia long-horned beetle which has killed thousands of tree across the United States since it was imported on untreated logs and packaging material.

Such protections against importing destructive pests would become even more needed if trade barriers on wood products are lifted, says Paige Fischer with the California-based Pacific Environment and Resources Centre.

''It's simple really, the more you trade in wood products, the more chances you have of importing a destructive pest,'' she says.

Group also fear that the non-tariff methods would challenge efforts to label or certify wood products that are harvested in sustainable methods which prohibit the logging of old-growth or endangered trees.

Such efforts by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international environmental organisation that certifies and labels timber, have already been challenged by the Malaysian government.

US trade official Phillips told IPS, however, that it was ''still too early to tell'' what will be included in the agreement to liberalize trade in wood products.

''The non-tariff method negotiations were still in the early stages, so, it's premature to say what the impacts will be,'' Phillips said. In any case, ''environmental groups have plenty of time to make their concerns known.''

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