FPAC aims to make an impact on Europe.

How does Canada's forest products industry rate the importance of Europe as a trading partner and export destination? One clue is the fact that the industry's trade association maintains its only permanent office outside Canada in Brussels, Belgium--right at the heart of Europe's legislative power.

The managing director of European operations for the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) is Edwin Mallory. He has the task of promoting Canada's forest products across Europe as well as making sure that the interests of its members are served by tracking trade issues and lobbying for Canada's producers.

This is not an easy task given the nature of the European Commission's legislative process and the fact that the group is always lobbying from the "outside," as it were.

"We're not part of Europe, so it can be tricky to get our point of view across, but we have good relations with everyone here so it usually works out okay," he explained. "There's about CAD 3 billion per year in trade between Canada and Europe, much of it in pulp, newsprint, and timber. Part of our task involves helping to promote exports from Canada to Europe, but there are all sorts of irritations to trade and it's our job here to smooth those out as best we can."

Like many other forest industry associations, one of the toughest trade tests the organization faces is dealing with the attentions of environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Canadian producers have taken a lot of criticism, especially over clear-cutting, but Mallory said such issues are well on their way to being resolved. Not only that, but the association's experience in Brussels is now helping to deliver other benefits for member companies back home.

"A lot of the attention was initiated by Greenpeace in Germany and was directed at papermakers that buy Canadian pulp. Of course, the United States is a big market and it was a concern for us that the campaign would shift there from Europe. In fact, we're seeing evidence of that now. A lot more people are asking producers about sustainability in the States, but due to our experiences in Europe we can better advise people and address concerns."

For example, Hope Depot has been asking searching questions about environmental issues. "They are a dominant force, so when they start asking you questions about sustainability and certification, you need to have answers," Mallory said.

He pointed out that first-hand experience in Europe has helped shape an appropriate Canadian response for concerns being raised in the U.S. market. Certification is a vitally important topic and all of FPAC's members are now required to have a sustainability scheme in place. However, as Mallory explained, "Our position has always been to support certification, but we don't take a position on what program might be better than another." As such, the association's members use a broad variety of systems, including schemes from Canada's national sustainable forest management standard, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Forest Stewardship Council, and the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard.

CHANGING TIMES

Consolidation has affected many trade associations and FPAC is a good example. The organization largely grew out of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association (CPPA), taking on a broader forest products industry remit and a stronger lobbying stance. Under its new president and CEO, Avrim Lazar, FPAC has taken on new responsibilities and moved its main office from Montreal to Ottawa.

"We're now the Forest Products Association of Canada," said Mallory. "We've broadened our interests and consolidated a lot of the smaller groups. Basically, the new association has been built on the bones of the old CPPA, which was done at the instigation of our members. We have a new headquarters in Ottawa and our relationship with the government has improved tremendously. In fact, they've given us CAD 17 million to run a lumber trade advocacy program in the U.S."

About the author: Jim Kenny is contributing editor/Europe for Solutions! magazine, and is based in Brussels, Belgium. He is the former vice president of editorial for Paperloop and today heads his own company, DSI. Contact him by phone at [phone] or by email at [e-mail]