. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/NLD/62 
21 April 2004 
 (04-1791) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  
   
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   THE NETHERLANDS
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   Ministry of  Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (on 
request of the Lower Chamber of Parliament) 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:   National Enquiry 
Point – EC WTO TBT Enquiry Point 
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   Wood products 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Bill presented by 
M. Vos MP amending for the second time the Bill presented by M. Vos MP amending the 
Environmental Management Act (sustain ably produced wood), as amended by a 
memorandum of amendment (Parliamentary doc uments II, parliamentary term 2002-2003, 
28 631, no 8). 
6. Description of content:   The Minister for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment 
is drawing up a model for a certificate for sustainably managed forests, for a certificate for tracing systems for sustainably produced wood and for a mark indicating that the wood to which it has been applied has been produced by  sustainable methods. Permission to use the 
certificates is granted on application to a bod y accredited, by the Council for Accreditation 
or by an organisation with which the Council for Accreditation has an international mutual 
recognition agreement, for assessing sustainable forest management and for assessing a tracing system for sustainably produced wood. The body's assessment guideline must be approved by the Minister for Housing, Planni ng and the Environment. Article 9.4 contains 
an equivalence clause for that body and that assessment guideline. 
The holder of a certificate for sustainably managed forests is entitled to apply the 
above-mentioned mark to wood originating from the area to which the certificate applies. 
The holder of a certificate for tracing systems for sustainably produced wood may apply the mark to wood originating from an area to which a certificate for sustainably managed 
forests applies. 
 
Amendments have been made to the previous ly notified bill that considerably reduce the 
impact that the measure could have on the internal market: 
  G/TBT/N/NLD/62 
Page 2  
 
- in its previously notified form, the b ill contained a combination of positive and 
negative incentives: consumers would always notice on wood products or on the packaging 
thereof a mark with information about thei r origin. The negative incentive, i.e. the 
requirement to apply a mark to wood products fo r which it cannot be demonstrated that they 
originate from an area in which wood is produ ced using sustainable methods, has now been 
omitted from the regulation. The positive incen tive remains: the ability to lay down clear 
and unambiguous requirements pertaining to fo rest management, a system of checking 
whether these requirements are being satisfied, and the guarantee that the information that consumers are given when they bu y wood products is reliable. 
  
Producers and traders of wood can decide themselves whether they want to apply for 
certificates that give them the right  to apply the positive mark.  
 - In addition, the bill is simplified with re gard to assessment of the management plan: 
a separate approval for the management plan is  no longer required, but rather assessment of 
the management plan is part of the assessment plan from the outset. This leads to a reduced 
administrative burden.  
- An improvement is introduced with regard to the certificates, which brings the bill 
into line with practices in the trade chain for sustainably produced wood and reduces the 
administrative burden. Whereas the previously notified bill referred to one certificate, 
indicating the name and address of the parti es who put the wood products onto the Dutch 
market , the bill now refers to two certificates, a certificate for sustainably managed forests and a certificate for tracing systems for sust ainably produced wood. The first certificate is 
intended for the forest manager and the second fo r the traders in the chain. The second type 
of certificate guarantees, amongst other things , that sustainably produced wood remains 
well distinguished from wood that is not, or cannot be demonstrated to be, sustainably 
produced.  A wood trader who trades in wood originating from a forest for which a certificate for sustainably managed forests has been issued, but which has not yet had the 
mark applied to it, may apply this mark if he possesses a certificate for tracing systems. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
The bill aims to protect the environment and, in  particular, forests. Deforestation affects not 
only the environment in the country in which the forests are situated but also the global 
environment. The bill fits in well with the agre ements made in an international context in 
this field, including the International Tropi cal Timber Agreement (ITTA) (1994), which had 
the objective of achieving international trade in sustainably produced wood in 2000. 
8. Relevant documents:    
- Parliamentary documents II, parliamentar y term 2002-2003, 28 631 nrs. 4, 5 and 7 
- Parliamentary documents I, parliament ary term 2000-2001, 23 982/26 998, 173a  
(memorandum of reply). 
- Proceedings of the Upper House of the Dutch Parliament, parliamentary year 
2001/2002, 23 982/26 998, pp. 1322-1363, pp. 1739-1757: discussion on the bill 
presented by M. Vos MP amending the bill presented by M. Vos MP amending the Environmental Management Act (sustainably produced wood) 
9. Proposed date of adoption:  in the early part of 2005 
Proposed date of entry into force:  ultimately 2 years after that date 
10. Final date for comments:   July 2004 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ X] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body: