Eighteen producer countries and eighteen consumer countries, as well as the European Union, today decided to put the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) 1994 into force provisionally among themselves in whole as of 1 January 1997. The decision was taken at a meeting held in UNCTAD, chaired by Mr. Carlos Fortin, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD.
These countries had taken action towards the entry into force of a successor Agreement to the ITTA 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, Brazil, with the biggest tropical forest resources, stated its intention to sign the Agreement shortly. Several countries, including Japan and Canada, expressed their very strong support to the ITTA 1994.
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.
