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 18 September 2003
KL denies flooding plywood mart with cheaper timber
by ZAIDI ISHAM ISMAIL
TIMBER officials denies Indonesia’s allegations that Malaysia is using cheap
illegally-exported timber from the country to flood the international plywood
market.
A Malaysian Timber Council official said there has not been any noticeable
increase in Malaysia’s production or exports of plywood, let alone in amounts,
to indicate the country’s ability to flood the market.
“In fact, there had been a 4.5 per cent drop in plywood production from 4.4
million cu m in 2000 to 4.2 million cu m last year,” the official told
Business Times recently.
“Furthermore, Malaysia and other countries could not have flooded the market
with the illegal plywood because at the time, the timber market was softening
due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the US led war on Iraq, he
said.
The Indonesian Wood Panel Association (Apkindo) claimed that Indonesia’s
plywood exports plunged 15 per cent due to the actions of both Malaysia and
China.
Apkindo accused the two countries of flooding the export market with cheaper
plywood made from logs taken illegaly from Indonesia.
Indonesia’s Forestry Minister Muhammad Prakosa was quoted in the Indonesian
Press as saying he will visit Malaysia, Singapore and China to seek a solution
to the smuggling of logs from its forests to those countries.
Prakosa said he would initially visit Malaysia and Singapore early next month to
urge both countries not to accept illegal logs from Indonesia.
“We will discuss the issue immediately in bilateral talks with the governments
of Singapore and Malaysia as more than 50 per cent of illegal logs are smuggled
to those countries,” he was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.
Prakosa also accused Singapore of serving as a laundering base for smuggled logs
from Indonesia before the commodity was exported to other countries.
He added that of the countries approached by Indonesia on the issue, Singapore
was the most uncooperative.
Singapore had yet to respond to Indonesia’s request despite being repeatedly
urged to stop accepting illegal logs, he said.
He also said that Indonesia wants to get as many countries as possible to agree
not to accept illegal logs from Indonesia.
Malaysia and China signed memorandums of understanding with Indonesia last year
to prohibit companies in their countries from accepting the smuggled logs.
Meanwhile, an industry source said Indonesia is known to play the victim
strategy blaming neighbouring countries for laundering the illegal logs whenever
the republic cannot control illegal logging within its country.
“Indonesia goes around the world signing memorandums of understanding to curb
trade in illegal logs from the country with the UK, Japan, China and Norway. Now
they are thinking of South Korea and the European Union.
“Sometimes, Indonesia claims they have signed an agreement with Malaysia but
there is no such agreement yet,” said the source.
Meanwhile, the timber council official said Malaysia is committed to ensuring
that no illegal logs from Indonesia enter Malaysia and is enforcing the ban as
effectively as possible.
He said Malaysia’s timber industry is willing to cooperate and abide by the
ban on imports of logs from Indonesia.
Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of plywood producing 6.3 million cu
m in 2002 followed by Malaysia (3.5 cu m), Brazil (1.3 cu m) and China (1.2
million cu m).
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