Sales No.: 1953.II.E.3This Study of trends in European timber production, consumption and trade is the outgrowth of the work and experience of the Timber Committee of the Economic Commission for Europe, which is jointly serviced by the Secretariats of the Commission and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In the autumn of 1947, when this Committee was first established, its purpose was to help European Governments to overcome through concerted action the acute timber shortage which was hampering European reconstruction. It continued the informal agreements among importing countries on purchasing limits inaugurated by the Timber Committee of the E.E.C.E., the immediate predecessor of the present Committee.
It sponsored timber equipment loans granted by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to several European wood-exporting countries. It met frequently to make forward estimates about prospective requirements and contributed in various other ways towards the comparatively rapid post-war recovery of European wood production. Despite the temporary disappearance of the Soviet Union as a large source of sawn softwood imports, and without aggravating Europe’s dollar deficit through continuous heavy imports of North-American timber, it thus became possible to meet the bulk of Europe’s timber requirements.
Read more