Authors: Thomas R. Waggener and Richard P Vlosky

​Introduction
Wood has been an important commodity in world trade for centuries.  Over 4500 years ago Lebanon exported wood to Egypt and Christopher Columbus carried mahogany from his explorations of the New World back to Europe.  The continued significance of world wood flows is evident by a total value of global forest products trade in 1980 of $34 billion (Radcliffe & Sedjo, 1984).

As would be expected, wood products trade flows from wood surplus to wood deficit regions.  Relatively few nations export forest products, as their domestic wood supply is used for meeting domestic requirements.  Even though extensive forest resources exist in many nations, forest products exports are possible only if economic demand justifies the extraction and shipment of that wood.  Presently, the two countries most heavily involved in forest products export trade are the United States and Canada.

Major Forest Products Flows are explored by commodity.