Hong Kong has more greenery than you would imagine. Still, it has been an odd day, talking about forests all the time while staring at skyscrapers all around me (I'm Daniel, the trade policy guy at Greenpeace).

Today, we issued a report highlighting that the WTO is endangering the last ancient forests of the world. There are many reasons for this. For starters, the WTO refuses to recognize that HOW something is produced matters. A table is always a table to trade bureaucrats. Whether it is made out of wood from destructive logging practices, or out of "decent" wood, such as that certified with the Forestry Stewardship Council label - well, they don't care.

And things can only get worse. Under a funnily named strand of the WTO negotiations, called NAMA, governments aim to eliminate tariffs on forest products. Cutting tariffs will result in wood becoming even cheaper - which in turn (welcome to Economics 101!) will increase demand. More demand, finally, will mean even more of the last ancient forests of the world being felled - and more of the communities depending on forests around the world, losing their livelihoods.

But you don't have to believe us! The European Union earlier this week, also published a thing called a "Sustainability Impact Assesment" of liberalization in the forest sector. Lo and behold - they, too, say that "trade liberalization magnified existing problems (for example illegal logging in Indonesia and parts of Brazil ...)" and, to put it mildly, urge governments to be cautious before moving ahead with further liberalization.

Well, nice try. But the researchers who wrote the EU-funded assessment, seem to have wasted their time. The European Union is still hell-bent on pushing for drastic liberalization measures on NAMA ... They are even telling other countries, that they will not cut any deal here in Hong Kong unless more tariffs on "NAMA goods" (such as forests) are cut.

So, for the moment, we are left to cry: "free trade fails forests" in the press and build up the pressure. That worked well today. Well enough, at least, for me to feel strange to constantly talk about forests in the midst of a 7 million city.

Greenpeace calls on governments to halt the NAMA neogotiations and abandon plans to liberalize the trade in forest products - as impacts are proven to be negative.

On more reasons to oppose that strange "NAMA" acronym - read my Chinese colleague's contribution here tomorrow!