Four nominations were received in the forest product area from the United States, Canada, Indonesia and New Zealand. These four proposals were merged together in September 1997, with New Zealand agreeing to act as coordinator for the proposal. Indonesia, the United States and Canada have remained active proponents of the proposal in a co-sponsor role. At the APEC summit in Kuala Lumpur in November 1998, APEC leaders agreed to move the tariff portions of the EVSL initiative to the WTO in order to seek a critical mass of support for concluding an agreement on all eight sectors by the end of 1999. The sector faces a range of barriers.
Tariffs remain particularly significant barriers.
Applied tariffs in OECD economies for these products, in general, are relatively low, however, tariffs for specific products remain high. Others would attempt to remove tariffs by the same date but countries could delay tariff removal until 1 January 2002 on a case by case basis for a limited number of specific products. The proposal calls for the commencement to tariff cuts on all other products with the goal of eliminating tariffs by 1 January 2002, but accepts that in special circumstances and on a case by case basis elimination could be delayed to 1 January 2004. As part of the original APEC EVSL agreed to in November 1997, APEC economies agreed to hire a consultant to undertake a study of non- tariff measures which may be affecting trade in the forest products sector. This past April, APEC issued a request for proposals for the study.