Canadians threaten NZ log trade goldmine

New Zealand’s pine plantations continue to produce a river of gold in China for their mainly foreign owners, with record earnings so far this year. But the competition just got a whole lot tougher.

A new trade agreement between the Chinese and Canadian governments throws the door wide open to softwood logs from the vast forests of British Columbia – and with one major advantage over New Zealand.

From the beginning of July, B.C. logs can be shipped into China through the ports of Putian (Fujian province) and Taicang (near Shanghai) all-year-round, without being treated for pests, according to the Vancouver Sun.

Inwoodtoday sources say this is double-whammy bad news. Canadian log exporters will be able to compete strongly with, and maybe even displace, New Zealand radiata pine. Lowering the market price to import parity based on the Canadian supply points is a distinct possibility.

But the biggest millstone around the Kiwi neck is the added costs of compliance with strict phytosanitary requirements for exporting forest products from NZ to China. Given the backdoor deal done by the Canadians, this perfectly sensible border protection procedure has been turned into a non-tariff barrier – and a trade-threatening one at that.

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Green battle lines being redrawn

It has been eerily quiet out there at the extremities of environmental activism against the forest industry for some time, but a veteran of battles past warns of an approaching storm.

Mark Barford, executive director of the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA) in the US believes the recent lull between environmental activists and the lumber industry could be coming to an end.

Much of the Green attention has been focused on fighting climate change, but with the collapse of those discussions in Copenhagen, Barford says global warming has become a “back burner” issue, with mega-issues like the gulf oil disaster the major focus.

“It seems environmental activists now view their role as one of saving the planet from destruction, which includes the end of deforestation, loosely defined by these activists as cutting any trees, anywhere,” he says in the NHLA newsletter. (Read more)

Shut the door on all illegal imports

Just preventing the importation of illegal timber and panels without doing the same for imported furniture, finished items and components will have negligible if any effect on reducing total imports of illegal timber.

So says Juel Briggs of Briggs Veneers who told a Sydney Hoo Hoo Club meeting last week that recent research using data from government sources indicates that of the total volume of illegal timber coming into Australia, three-quarters is in imported furniture, components, doors etc, with only one quarter timber, panels and veneer. (Read more)

Tree-planting scheme gets the chop

Despite continuing shrinkage of the nation’s pine forest estate, the New Zealand Government is winding down a scheme to subsidise the planting of new forests.

The John Key government says the emissions trading scheme makes continuation of the incentive unnecessary. He is supported by critics of the afforestation grants scheme, who believe it is badly designed and open to abuse.

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