TIMBER INDUSTRY: ACTION PLAN TO BOOST COMPETITIVENESS.

The Communication covers five sectors linked to the timber industry: the working of timber, pulp and cardboard, making paper and cardboard, packaging and printing/publishing. When Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the Community in 1995, the exploitable EU forestry resources doubled, pulp output tripled and paper and cardboard production rose 50%, mechanical working of timber 30% and the printing and publishing industries by 10 to 15%. The total value of production in all the sectors was put at Euro 319 billion in 1997, with an added value of 112 billion. They provide direct employment for 2.4 million people. The timber sector accounted for a total of 63,000 companies in 1998, including many SMEs and a small number of large groups operating on an international scale. On the trade front, 16% of total production (that is, Euro 53 billion by value) forms part of trading activities between the Member States and 25 billion worth (7%) is exported outside the Community. So it is basically a domestic industry. Generally speaking, the timber industry reports a steady rate of growth. The annual increase was 2.2% between 1989 and 1996 (2.4% for all processing industries).The Commission Communication has one key chapter on competitiveness-related factors. As for production factors, the report states that timber, energy, labour, transport and taxation costs are generally higher than in North and South America and Asia. Timber costs, depending on the species, are between 50% and 150% higher in Europe than in the aforementioned areas of the world. This is due not only to the question of wages and payments but also to safety and security standards plus social security costs. They are 20% higher than those in North America, and 100% higher than in South America and Asia.The growing trend towards globalisation is regarded as one of the major challenges. The European industry is faced with new competitors from Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, where productions costs are low. The competition has already resulted in lost market shares (in and outside the EU) for the timber industry. The development is all the more worrying as the mobility and transfers of technology, know-how and skills to low-cost product areas are on the increase, particularly in the direction of Asia. Another key challenge is the fact that EU enlargement calls for...