MEET TO DECIDE ON ITTA ENTRY

11:07 AM Sep 12, 1996

MEET TO DECIDE ON ITTA ENTRY
Geneva 12 Sep (TWN) -- Producers and consumers of Tropical Timber are meeting Friday at UNCTAD briefly to decide on the definitive or provisional entry into force of the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) adopted in 1994 by a UN Conference as a successor to ITTA 1983, which will expire on entry into force of the new agreement.

The meeting has been convened by UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero at the request of the International Timber Council. The terms set in ITTA 1994 for entry into force definitively or provisionally have not been met within the stipulated time.

For entry into force, definitively, the ITTA needed the ratification or other equivalent instruments by 12 governments of producer countries accounting for atleast 55% of the total votes and 16 consumer countries accounting for atleast 70% of the vote. For provisional entry into force, it needed ten countries on the producer side accounting for 50% of the vote and 14 governments on the consumer side accounting for 65% of the vote.

On the consumer side, the United States accounting for nearly a third in imports of tropical timber has not acted on the accord. And on the producer side, Brazil, accounting for a third of world exports has not acted.

Producers who have so far taken action for entry into force include Bolivia, Cameroon, Congo. Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and Togo.

Among the consumers Australia, Belgium/Luxembourg, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK have taken measures to for entry into force.

The meeting tomorrow could decide to put the agreement into force among the participants who have ratified, signed the agreement definitively or adopted instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval.