Combating Illegal Logging: Interaction with WTO Rules

Controlling international trade in illegal timber is an essential part of the international effort to reduce illegal logging, and consumer countries are taking a range of measures to exclude illegal timber from their markets. To date these include the EUs FLEGT licensing scheme and due diligence regulation, the US Lacey Act, and public procurement policies.

Since these measures are designed to alter the existing patterns of international trade in timber and timber products, they may interact with the rules governing international trade overseen by the World Trade Organization.

This paper analyses the extent to which measures like these are compatible with WTO rules. It is important to be aware of the broad constraints placed by WTO rules in designing measures such as these: the more the measure diverges from the core WTO principle of non-discrimination in trade, and the more trade-disruptive it is, the more vulnerable it could be to challenge.

Although it is impossible to be definite about the outcome of any challenge, within these broad constraints, governments have plenty of flexibility to adopt measures designed to exclude illegal timber from international trade, and none of the main measures being pursued at present should experience any conflict with WTO rules.

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edited:18/06/2009
uploaded:18/06/2009