Recent action by Greenpeace against the timber industry has prompted the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) to introduce an additional ‘enhanced’ legal advice service to its membership over the coming months.
The initiative, announced by TTF director-general Paul Martin at the North West Timber Trade Association (NWTTA) dinner in Liverpool last week, is to be ‘more closely attuned to the practical difficulties encountered by our industry’.
‘The service will provide member companies with free legal advice up to the stage of court action and will be funded by the Federation paying a quarterly fee to the solicitors,’ he added.
NWTTA president Richard Hull said while Canadian goods into the north-west ports had declined ‘it is gratifying to see the import of Baltic goods increasing in the Mersey’.
‘We also entertain the belief that Liverpool will entice back some of the Far Eastern cargo for which it is eminently suited,’ he said. ‘I suggest that it is in your interest to support any development which increases prosperity in this area.’
