International Marketing Practices

Chapter 2: International Trade of Forest Products To understand a business’s role in an international market, it is helpful to be aware of market trends and issues affecting trade. The first part of this chapter provides an overview of the global trade of forest products. Trade data listed in this chapter comes from several sources, including the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food and Agriculture Data Service (FAOSTAT) [28], the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service's Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS) [8], the Forest Products Annual Market Review published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and FAO [29], and other sources. The data provided in this guide depicts prominent trends over a 10-year period using the latest available data at the time the guide was written (spring 2019). Products analyzed include roundwood (softwood and hardwood), lumber (softwood and hardwood), wood-based panels, and value-added products (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Examples of forest products exported by the U.S. Photo credits: Sheryl Watson/Shutterstock.com, Robert Smith, Omar Espinoza.

The second part of this chapter reports on issues relevant to environmental sustainability and the international trade of forest products. Topics include measures taken to curb illegal logging, such as the U.S. Lacey Act and the European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan; forest certification and chain-of-custody certification; and actions to mitigate the spread of invasive pests, like the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures.

9