USTR Says 2015 Timber Shipment Not Compliant With Peru Laws and Regulations

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reviewed the government of Peru’s verification report of a 2015 timber shipment to the U.S., after USTR in February asked Lima pursuant to the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement to provide documentation that the import complied with relevant Peruvian laws and regulations, the agency said (here). According to a report by the Interagency Committee on Trade in Timber Products from Peru (here), the Peruvian Supervisory Agency for Forestry and Wildlife Resources reported that "significant portions" of the 2015 shipment (see 1602290045) to the Port of Houston did not comply with Peruvian laws and regulations; for instance, some trees were harvested without authorization, USTR said. But the Peruvian government has adopted several programs to reform the country’s forest sector, the agency said. Among these activities are recently reported seizures of illegal timber, and the creation of an independent forestry oversight body, which has conducted more than 4,000 inspections of 1.7 million hectares from 2009 to June 2016 that yielded “thousands of resolutions” to sanction illegal activity or order corrective actions to improve forest management.