International Tropical Timber Agreement 2

International Tropical Timber Agreement

 

Article 4
Membership in the Organization

There shall be two categories of membership in the Organization, namely:

(a) Producing; and

(b) Consuming.

Article 5
Membership by Intergovernmental Organizations

1. Any reference in this Agreement to “Governments”shall be construed as
including the European Economic Community and any other intergovernmental
organization having responsibilities in respect of the negotiation,
conclusion and application of international agreements, in particular
commodity agreements. Accordingly, any reference in this Agreement to
signature, ratification, acceptance or approval, or to notification of
provisional application, or to accession shall, in the case of such
intergovernmental organizations, be construed as including a reference to
signature, ratification, acceptance or approval, or to notification of
provisional application, or to accession, by such intergovernmental
organizations.

2. In the case of voting on matters within their competence, such
intergovernmental organizations shall vote with a number of votes equal
to the total number of votes attributable to their member States in
accordance with article 10. In such cases the member States of such
intergovernmental organizations shall not be entitled to exercise their
individual voting rights.

Chapter IV
International Tropical Timber Council

Article 6
Composition of the International Tropical Timber Council

1. The highest authority of the Organization shall be the International
Tropical Timber Council, which shall consist of all the members of the
Organization.

2. Each member shall be represented in the Council by one representative
and may designate alternates and advisers to attend sessions of the
Council.

3. An alternate representative shall be empowered to act and vote on
behalf of the representative during the latter’s absence or in special
circumstances.

Article 7
Powerrs and functions of the Council

1. The Council shall exercise all such powers and perform or arrange for
the performance of all such functions as are necessary to carry out the
provisions of this Agreement.

2. The Council shall, by special vote, adopt such rules and regulations
as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Agreement, including
its own rules of procedure and the financial and staff regulations of the
Organization. Such financial regulations shall, infer alia, govern the
receipt and expenditure of funds under the Administrative and Special
Accounts. The Council may, in its rules of procedure, provide for a
procedure whereby it may, without meeting, decide specific questions.

3. The Council shall keep such records as are required for the
performance of its functions under this Agreement.

Article 8
Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Council

1. The Council shall elect for each calendar year a Chairman and a
Vice-Chairman, whose salaries shall not be paid by the Organization.

2. The Chairman and the Vice-Chairman shall be elected, one from among
the representatives of producing members and the other from among the
representatives of consuming members. These offices shall alternate each
year between the two categories of members, provided, however, that this
shall not prohibit the re-election of either or both under exceptional
circumstances, by special vote of the Council.

3. In the temporary absence of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman shall act
in his place. In the temporary absence of both the Chairman and the
Vice-Chairman, or in the absence of one or both of them for the rest of
the term for which they were elected, the Council may elect new officers
from among the representatives of the producing members and/or from among
the representatives of the consuming members, as the case may be, on a
temporary basis or for the rest of the term for which the predecessor or
predecessors were elected.

 

Article 9
Sessions of the Council

1. As a general rule, the Council shall hold at least one regular session
a year.

2. The Council shall meet in special session whenever it so decides or at
the request of:

(a) The Executive Director, in agreement with the Chairman of the
Council; or

(b) A majority of producing members or a majority of consuming
members; or

(c) Members holding at least 500 votes.

3. Sessions of the Council shall be held at the headquarters of the
Organization unless the Council, by special vote, decides otherwise. If
on the invitation of any member the Council meets elsewhere than at the
headquarters of the Organization, that member shall pay the additional
cost of holding the meeting away from headquarters.

4. Notice of any sessions and the agenda for such sessions shall be
communicated to members by the Executive Director at least six weeks in
advance except in cases of emergency, when notice shall be communicated
at least seven days in advance.

Article 10
Distribution of votes

1. The producing members shall together hold 1,000 votes and the
consuming members shall together hold 1,000 votes.

2. The votes of the producing members shall be distributed as follows:

(a) Four hundred votes shall be distributed equally among the three
producing regions of Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. The votes
thus allocated to each of these regions shall then be distributed equally
among the producing members of that region;

(b) Three hundred votes shall be distributed among the producing
members in accordance with their respective shares of the total tropical
forest resources of all producing members; and

(c) Three hundred votes shall be distributed among the producing
members in proportion to the average of the values of their respective
net exports of tropical timber during the most recent three-year period
for which definitive figures are available.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2 of this article, the
total votes allocated to the producing members from the African region,
calculated in accordance with paragraph 2 of this article, shall be
distributed equally among all producing members from the African region.
If there are any remaining votes, each of these votes shall be allocated
to a producing member from the African region: the first to the producing
member which is allocated the highest number of votes calculated in
accordance with paragraph 2 of this article the second to the producing
member which is allocated the second highest number of votes, and so on
until all the remaining votes have been distributed.

4. For purposes of the calculation of the distribution of votes under
paragraph 2 (b) of this article, “tropical forest resources”means
productive closed broadleaved forests as defined by the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

5. The votes of the consuming members shall be distributed as follows:
each consuming member shall have 10 initial votes, the remaining votes
shall be distributed among the consuming members in proportion to the
average volume of their respective net imports of tropical timber during
the three-year period commencing four calendar years prior to the
distribution of votes.

6. The Council shall distribute the votes for each financial year at the
beginning of its first session of that year in accordance with the
provisions of this article. Such distribution shall remain in effect for
the rest of that year, except as provided for in paragraph 7 of this
article.

7. Whenever the membership of the Organization changes or when any member
has its voting rights suspended or restored under any provision of this
Agreement, the Council shall redistribute the votes within the affected
category or categories of members in accordance with the provisions of
this article. The Council shall, in that event, decide when such
redistribution shall become effective.

8. There shall be no fractional votes.

Article 11
Voting Procedures of the council

1. Each member shall be entitled to cast the number of votes it holds and
no member shall be entitled to divide its votes. A member may, however,
cast differently from such votes any votes which it is authorized to cast
under paragraph 2 of this article.

2. By written notification to the Chairman of the Council, any producing
member may authorize, under its own responsibility, any other producing
member, and any consuming member may authorize, under its own
responsibility, any other consuming member, to represent its interests
and to cast its votes at any meeting of the Council.

3. When abstaining, a member shall be deemed not to have cast its votes.

 

 

Conclusion

Notes

See Also

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

International Tropical Timber Agreement.


Posted

in

, ,

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *