The new International Tropical Timber Agreement has been completed.






The new International Tropical Timber Agreement was completed in the fourth conference which was held in Geneva during 19 ~ 27 Jan 2006 and the Agreement will enter into force in February 2008.


The Agreement should be amended and extended every certain period. The first Agreement had been adopted in 1983 and taken effect since April in 1985. The second was adopted in 1994 and into effect since January in 1997.






The Agreement, one of agreements on commodities, consists of Consumer Group and Producer Group. The current consumer members of ITTA consist of 25 countries, including 14 of the European Community and the producer members of 33 countires.


The Republic of Korea is the third consumer country, based on the volume of imports of tropical timber and has paid 240,000 USD for the annual contribution this year.






The crucial contents of the newly revised agreement :


firstly, the core operational costs of the council shall be assessed from contributions under the new Agreement but were assessed from voluntary contributions. The costs shall be shared among members in the proportions of 20 per cent for producers and 80 per cent for consumers. Therefore, voluntary contributions may be broadly used for projects to support tropical timber producing countries;


secondly, the Thematic Programme sub-account shall be established for extending sources of voluntary contributions as the European Community suggested so that tropical timber producing countries can use them for establishing fundamental bases of Sustainable Forest Management;


lastly, the European Community shall be given the rights to the entire votes allocated to its members so its functions can be strengthened.






Our delegation for the fourth conference arranged bilateral meetings with China, Japan, and Costa Rica, and discussed the financing mechanism and accounts. We reached the conclusion that we should keep the present initial votes. Switzerland, USA, Japan and Korea gave the common opinion that the council shall be held annually, which can be one of ways to utilize funds effectively, and constructively dealt with the discussion on the financing mechanism. The Korea delegation was engage in Legal Draft Committee, and participated in Credential Committee as an advisor as well.






International Cooperation Division


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