Greenpeace's claims a sham????????

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Trade expert slams Greenpeace's claims against Rimbunan Hijau - New Straits

Times

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*July 27 2006*

 

AN international trade expert has claimed that a Greenpeace campaign for

trade bans on Papua New Guinea timber is a sham.

 

Alan Oxley, the former chairman of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT), a predecessor of the World Trade Organisation, has labelled the

Greenpeace campaign as a sham, saying that the information used as the basis

of its claims lacked credibility.

 

Oxley now heads an Australian consultancy, ITS Global.

 

Dutch-based Greenpeace has been seeking a United Kingdom and European

consumer boycott of Papua New Guinea (PNG) sourced timber and timber

products, in particular targeting Malaysia's Rimbunan Hijau Group.

 

The Greenpeace campaign has seen several reports produced along with

attempts to get UK and European governments to legislate against the import

of PNG timber.

 

The ITS Global study that was commissioned by Rimbunan Hijau group, comes

after a comprehensive investigation of all company activities.

 

On top of criticising the use of the word " illegal " by Greenpeace, the study

also questions the organisation's motive in specifically targeting Rimbunan

Hijau.

 

" It has labelled the company a criminal, accused it of treating employees

like slaves and invoked xenophobia because the company is foreign-owned and

the owners are Chinese-Malaysian, " Oxley said.

 

The study argues that Greenpeace's real goal is to stop commercial forestry

in PNG, which would lead to the loss of 10,000 jobs and a quarter of a

billion dollars in exports as well as a drop in gross domestic product of

five per cent.

 

Oxley said the study shows callous disregard by Greenpeace for the people of

one of the poorest countries in the world, and that PNG is being used as a

pawn in the Greenpeace international campaign.

 

The study also rejects Greenpeace and other non-governmental organisations'

claims that logging will have disastrous impact on the forests of Papua New

Guinea that cover 64 per cent of the country.