ABSTRACT
New Zealand is a small player in international markets, and forest products are commodities for which there are many substitutes and competing suppliers. This chapter deals with the separate but interrelated issues that have arisen in New Zealand and elsewhere with respect to the forestry sector and trade policy. It covers the issue of further processing, and the debate that has surrounded the desirability or otherwise of utilising export restrictions on unprocessed wood products to increase the level of processing occurring within New Zealand prior to export. The chapter also deals with possible economic rationales for increasing processing, including what is often alleged to be the proximate cause of the low level of processing within New Zealand, the escalating tariff structures of the major importing countries of the region. It then briefly considers the legal environment for export restrictions and other processing incentives.
