148 



Mr. Penny. How much of this export growth has been in finished 

 products which is to say famiture and other wood products? 



Mr. Webster. I can't give you a specific percentage or number, 

 but most of it has been value-added. 



Mr. Penny. In some fashion, but it wouldn't necessarily be a 

 cedar chest. 



Mr. Webster. No. Primarily our products going overseas are not 

 finished products like furniture cabinets. They are pieces. 



Mr. Penny. Boards cut to size. 



Mr. Webster. Cut to size and/or shaped, or what have you, and 

 sent to a receiving country that again will make a finished product 

 out of it. 



Mr. Penny. What we run into — ^you talked about some trade bar- 

 riers in Japan to American wood products. Is this a commodity that 

 is more encumbered with trade barriers than others or not. I am 

 not sure how best to ask the question except some people feel that 

 their particular product is restricted to a greater degree than other 

 items. 



Do you feel that wood products are particularly difficult products 

 to export given the policies within Japan and other countries re- 

 garding import of these items. 



Mr. Webster. Japan is an impossible market, almost. I say that 

 advisedly. The only real forest product that Japan receives from 

 our country in large dollar volumes are logs. And they in turn proc- 

 ess the logs in further form. They have tariffs that reach as high 

 as 20 percent on most forest products excepting logs. 



And all that our industry asks, Mr. Chairman, is that we are 

 very efficient on a worldwide basis and we are very efficient, and 

 we can compete with, in my opinion, with any country in the world. 

 All we would like to have is zero-zero tariffs. 



Mr. Penny. That is true, even for wood items that originate in 

 southeastern Minnesota, that we are competitive even though we 

 are 1,000 miles from New Orleans. 



Mr. Webster. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Penny. A couple of thousand miles from either coast. 



Mr. Webster. On a monthly basis I am shipping to Germany, 

 Taiwan, Korea. Yes, sir, we are very competitive and it has nothing 

 to do with dollar-an-hour labor or 50-cent-an-hour labor. We are 

 very competitive. 



Mr. Penny How about the use of GSM credits for wood product 

 sales on the international market? 



Mr. Webster. Well, without those, we would not have been able 

 to get things going in Mexico, for example. They are very helpful, 

 but I have to honestly tell you I am working on very thin ice now, 

 and I can't speak to it. Would you like one of my associates to re- 

 spond. 



Mr„ Penny. That is fine. We can get some additional information. 

 But I am trying to measure in terms of assistance we can provide 

 to the GSM credits, the market promotion, the cooperators on the 

 ground and the other FAS personnel on the ground in the market 

 development arena. Evidently, you sort of use all of the tools avail- 

 able for your commodities. 



Mr. Webster. Yes, we use all the tools available, but we have 

 not used the GSM credits. 



