Ethical Trade Policy Watching Briefs

• Objectives
• The Policy Watching Briefs
• The Authors

Objectives

The Policy Watching Briefs is a series of papers reviewing policy issues affecting ethical trade in the forest sector. The series offers a policy window for those involved in trade in products from tropical forests, particularly those in the forest product trade who want information relevant to their interests. We also hope it will be useful to those supporting these traders and promoting ethical trade.

Policy Watching Briefs

Over the course of the project a number of Policy Watching Briefs will be produced. They will cover issues of international importance and issues specific to traders in forest products. The Policy Watching Briefs are produced in two formats:

1. a short paper outlining the key issues
2. web pages covering the issues in more detail and with links to other sites

Edition 1 WTO and the Seattle Round
October 1999

This first edition looks at international trade policy factors, particularly in the context of the World Trade Organisation and the new round of trade negotiations to be launched at the Ministerial Meeting in Seattle (30 November to 3 December 1999). We focus on trade in certified timber, in particular from forests where either the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the ISO 14000 series approaches have been applied.

Short policy paper:	Forest Certification in the Eyes of the World Trade Organisation: (implications of the Seattle Round)
The web version

Edition 2 Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures and their implications for trade in forest products.
March 2000

The second edition looks at the WTO's rules for the application of Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures(SPS measures) on products traded by developing countries. We focus on the extent to which SPS measures create impediments to trade, how the WTO governs the use of SPS measures and the potential for developing countries to improve access to Northern markets.

Short policy paper:	SPS Measures and trade in forest products
The web version

The authors

Ethical Trade Policy Watching Briefs are produced by the Natural Resources and Ethical Trade Programme as part of its Ethical Trade and Forest Dependent People project.

NRET is managed by the Natural Resources Institute (UK). The project is funded by the Department for International Development's Forest Research programme but any views expressed are not necessarily those of DFID.

Watching Briefs are edited by Anne Tallontire.