World Trade Flows of Forest Products

Abstract

The value of world forest products trade increased from USD 6 billion in 1962 to USD 155 billion in 1997. This represents a fivefold increase in real terms. The traded volume of all major forest products has expanded substantially; the greatest increases were for panels and paper. Round wood plays a diminishing role particularly in the exports of tropical countries. Forest products exports and imports of all the major regions have increased substantially Asia and the Pacific as well as Latin America increased their share of world trade, while the shares of both Europe and North America have decreased. This paper, by reference to world trends and the structure of the exports of Finland and the imports of Japan, explores the use of detailed trade flow data. The paper illustrates the potential power of this type of data in exploring the nature of trade growth by investigating the trend toward concentration on higher value products and the growing dominance of nearest regions in trade reactionist with the trend toward regionalization is the continuation of trade between numerous and sometimes rather distant countries.