The “Foreign Trade” department of the German timber-trade federation (GD Holz) will be holding this year’s Foreign Trade Meeting in Bremen for the third time in succession on 26 March. As in the last two years, the event will begin with the meetings of the specialist departments held parallel to each other. Each of these meetings will start with a presentation on a current issue that then leads into the overview. For the “Imported Plywood” department, Sylva Krechlerová, managing director of Kronospan CR spol, will be providing information on the Kronospan group’s en-try into plywood production and the marketing concept associated with it. For the “Import Brokers and Agents” department, Florian Zeller of GD Holz looks into the topic of “Wood quality in planed products: softwood for decking and cladding”. The two departments part again for the market overview. The “Wood from Overseas” department will be dealing with the progress of FLEGT in a variety of countries, the presentation of the results of the EUTR quick survey, and the member proposal for promoting sales of tropical wood.
The joint meeting in the afternoon begins with the delivery of the latest GD Holz business report by director Thomas Goebel. This is followed by the regular, three-year executive board elections for the posts of chairman, deputy chairman, and spokespersons for the four departments. In the keynote speech thereafter, Dr Josef Braml of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) will address the subject of “Geo-economic rivals: USA and China – Where does Europe stand without the UK?”. The Foreign Trade Meeting ends with the “Importer’s Dinner” at the Bremen Chamber of Commerce in the evening.