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The forestry and wood products industry is New Zealand's third largest export sector, worth over $3 billion p.a. and is responsible for the employment of about 26,000 New Zealanders, mainly in regional towns.
Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in overseas markets are, however, an increasing obstacle to expanding New Zealand's forest and wood product exports, especially in value added goods. A 2002 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council study, for example, estimated that the cost to APEC economies of prescriptive and discriminatory fire regulations, which unduly discriminate against wood products, was approximately US$10 billion a year - a cost shared by both wood suppliers and users.
As a way of addressing such NTBs New Zealand in conjunction with the US submitted to the WTO's Negotiating Group on Market Access, in January 2005, a proposal aimed at tackling NTBs affecting the use of wood products in building construction. New Zealand and the US, along with other interested countries are now working to build support for this proposal and to develop the specific mechanisms for resolving or removing these NTBs.
The following paper was presented to the World Trade Organisation Negotiating Group on Non-agricultural Market Access on 28 January 2005:
Non-tariff barriers - building codes and the wood products sector - some suggested negotiating opportunities html version PDF (241KB)
