2007-11-13 22:24:07 -

www.usw.org - News From USW: The United Steelworkers (USW) today praised the House Natural Resources Committee for its unanimous approval of an unprecedented bill to combat illegal logging. The bill, H.R. 1497 would amend the Lacey Act to ban the importation of logs and other plants that have been harvested in violation of local, national and international

law.

"This committee action is important to our members, whose jobs depend on a level playing field where our overseas competitors are required to obey the law on timber harvesting, just as our U.S. and Canadian employers must," said USW International President Leo W. Gerard.

"When an overseas company is allowed to harvest timber illegally, that company gets a cost advantage that a law abiding company in North America cannot hope to match," he continued.

The effort against illegal logging began to gather steam earlier this year when the USW and the Sierra Club, working together in a Blue Green Alliance, included illegal logging as a significant portion of a countervailing duty trade case on coated free sheet paper. The two organizations hold that illegal logging amounts to an illegal subsidy.

Coated free sheet paper is high-quality glossy paper used in such applications as book jackets, high-end magazines and shareholder reports. In September the U.S. Commerce Department imposed sanctions on coated free sheet imports based on illegal subsidies by China, South Korea and Indonesia. The department took note of the illegal logging charges but stated there was no existing law under which sanctions could be imposed.

"This illustrates the need for the illegal logging bill," said USW International Vice President Dick LaCosse. "We know illegal logging is damaging the environment where it happens and hurting our members here. We need a legal framework under which this practice can be stopped. We will continue to work with all our allies until this bill becomes law, and in the longer term until the practice of illegal logging is stopped."

The USW represents 1.2 million members and retirees in North America and the Caribbean, and is the largest paper workers union in North America with over 130,000 members in the U.S. paper and forest products industry.

United Steelworkers
Gary Hubbard, 202-778-4384
or
Keith Romig, 615-831-6786