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U.S. TIMBER INDUSTRY'S HARD TIMES CAUSED BY FREE TRADE ZEALOTS, NOT ENVIRONMENTALISTS

By Matthew Koehler, Native Forest Network

Over the year, the timber industry in the U.S. has grown accustom to blaming all mill shutdowns on environmentalists. In the early 90s the industry blamed environmentalists and the spotted owl for throwing thousands of people out of work in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the real culprit was automation within the mills, exports to Japan and decades of unsustainable logging on the region's public and private forests.

Now the timber industry is attempting to convince the American people that if we just let them cut more timber from our public national forests all
their problems will suddenly disappear. Unfortunately, their rationale fails
to recognize the global economic forces solely responsible for the economic woes facing many small and mid-sized timber companies in the U.S.

One of the biggest problems impacting the timber industry is near record low lumber prices. The reason: a glut of timber on the world's markets coupled with a slowdown in the U.S. economy, which has reduced the demand for new housing construction. Of course, this situation has been further compounded by similar economic problems that have plagued Asia for the past five years. The reality is that in an increasingly global marketplace, what happens halfway around the world can cause a mill in America to shut its doors.

This should come as no surprise. For years, the environmental community has warned of the dire consequences that increased globalization, corporate mergers and the subsequent "race to the bottom" would bring to workers and ecosystems throughout the world. In 1999 environmentalists stood arm in arm with organized labor to educate the world about the threats posed by the World Trade Organization and their undemocratic policies which undermine environmental laws and worker's rights.

Back in 1994 we warned that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. would cost U.S. jobs while causing economic and environmental harm in Canada and Mexico. Current estimates are that NAFTA's passage has resulted in "pink slips" for 395,000 U.S. workers while deforestation in Canada and pollution levels in Mexico have increased exponentially.

The severity of the situation facing U.S. timber companies-especially small
and mid-sized companies-was highlighted by 53 Republican and Democratic
Senators in a letter to President Bush on March 1, "The U.S. lumber industry
faces a continued crisis with lumber prices collapsing nearly 33% and
shipments from Canada growing to record levels. In the past six months, such
conditions caused approximately one hundred mills across the U.S. to close
with attendant losses in employment."

The future for small and mid-sized timber companies in the U.S. is not
likely to get any brighter. With the March 31 expiration of the U.S.-Canada
Softwood Lumber Agreement imports of Canadian timber into the U.S. will
skyrocket in the near future, causing more environmental damage to Canada's
old-growth forests and more economic hardship for U.S. timber mills.

Perhaps an even bigger threat to the U.S. timber industry is the expansion
of NAFTA to include the entire western hemisphere under the proposed Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Trade negotiators will be holding
closed-door meetings in Quebec City, Canada from April 20-22 to help make
the FTAA a reality and the "race to the bottom" a few steps closer to
completion.

If NAFTA has caused so much grief for U.S. timber companies, imagine the
impact of adding the entire western hemisphere to the mix. Countries such as
Chile, Argentina and Brazil have vast reserves of native old-growth forests
that the big players in the timber industry are eagerly waiting to exploit
once the FTAA is enacted and trade barriers are eliminated. Companies such
as Boise Cascade and Weyerhaeuser-who coincidentally own some of the largest
logging companies in Canada and have benefited tremendously from the dumping
 of Canadian timber into the U.S.-will again position themselves to reap the
rewards of the FTAA.

Over the past century, the one constant within the "boom and bust" nature of
the timber industry is that the industry has always moved to new frontiers
with cheap access to big timber. This is as true today as it was in the late
1890's when the timber industry picked up its stakes in the Great Lakes and
settled in the Pacific Northwest.

Unfortunately, unless our society begins to address the negative impacts of
globalization we will continue to see more of world's timber supply being
controlled by a few multinational corporations that have the resources and
the power to move from continent to continent. This is the reality of
increased globalization on the timber industry.

Matthew Koehler is with the Native Forest Network, PO Box 8251 Missoula,
Montana, a non-profit international environmental organization. E-Mail:
Koehler@wildrockies.org.


Matthew Koehler
Native Forest Network - Public Lands Project
P.O. Box 8251, Missoula, MT 59807
(406) 542-7343, fax (406) 542-7347
E-Mail: koehler@wildrockies.org

NFN's Public Lands Project works to protect America's National Forests from
commercial logging and other forms of exploitation. To learn more:
http://www.nativeforest.org/campaigns/public_lands/index.html

To learn more about the international forest protection efforts of the
Native Forest Network visit:
http://www.nativeforest.org

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