NEW TROPICAL TIMBER AGREEMENT TO TAKE EFFECT FROM 1 JANUARY 1997
Press Release
TAD/1834
NEW TROPICAL TIMBER AGREEMENT TO TAKE EFFECT FROM 1 JANUARY 1997
19960918 GENEVA, 18 September (UNCTAD) -- Eighteen producer-countries and eighteen consumer-countries, as well as the European Union, today decided to put the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) of 1994 into force provisionally among themselves as of 1 January 1997. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Carlos Fortin, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).These countries had taken action towards the entry into force of a successor Agreement to the ITTA of 1983. Together they represent the bulk of world trade in tropical timber. The producer-countries are Bolivia, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Thailand and Togo. The consumer-countries are Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the European Union.
At today's meeting, the representative of Brazil, with the biggest tropical forest resources, stated his country's intention to sign the Agreement shortly. Several countries, including Japan and Canada, expressed their strong support for the 1994 Agreement.
The core objectives of the ITTA 1994 are conservation, management and sustainable development of the world's tropical forests, as well as technical cooperation activities and the promotion of market transparency and tropical timber trade.
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