Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 3 • 18th February 2005

US Questions EU on Wood Pallet Restrictions

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US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick urged European governments in a 9 February letter to suspend a new rule, scheduled to go into effect on 1 March, that would require wood pallets used to import many goods into the EU to be bark-free. The EU had approved the new regulation last October in an effort to “prevent nasty little insects from getting into the ports and causing all kinds of damage,” according to Anthony Gooch, a spokesman for the European Commission in Washington. EU officials will discuss the potentially trade-distorting effects of this environmental regulation, and the possibility of delaying it, at a meeting on 28 February. The US as well as a number of Latin American countries have previously raised related concerns at the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, arguing that the requirements go beyond the agreed International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures on wood packaging (see Bridges Weekly, 3 November 2004).

Wood pallets, which are used to ship more than US$8 billion in goods from the US to the EU annually, can provide temporary sanctuary to insects that are harmful to plants. Several countries, including Brazil and Finland, have imposed regulations in response to outbreaks of long-horned beetles, requiring wood pallets to be heat-treated, fumigated or treated with preservatives prior to departure from the country of origin. Among the chemicals used to treat pallets, methyl bromide — a significant ozone depleting substance — has proven controversial among Parties to the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances who have repeatedly failed to agree on whether to allow limited use (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 3 December 2004).

“U.S. Complains to Europe Over Rules on Wood Pallets,” BLOOMBERG, 10 February 2005; “Insects making pallets unpalatable,” BOSTON GLOBE, 13 February 2005.