Former U.S. Ambassador Eizenstat to Advise APP

Asia Pulp & Paper Group, China, this past week announced that it has engaged Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C., USA, an international law firm, and the head of its international practice, former Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, to ensure APP's trade and sustainability compliance in North America. The "partnership" follows site visits by the Covington & Burling team to APP's operations and briefings with APP leadership, government officials, and forestry experts.

Ambassador Eizenstat has more than four decades of experience in U.S. government, including (in the Clinton Administration): U.S. ambassador to the European Union; under secretary of commerce for international trade; under secretary of state for economic, business, and agricultural affairs; and deputy secretary of the treasury. He was chief domestic policy advisor to President Carter and head of the white house domestic policy staff.

Ambassador Eizenstat is a noted expert on global sustainability issues and green business practices. He led the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. He has worked with a coalition of environmental groups and corporations to raise awareness of the role of forests in sustainability and to encourage forest carbon credits. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on forestry and sustainability issues.

The Covington team will include Ambassador Alan Larson, a senior international policy advisor at Covington and a career diplomat who also served as under secretary for economic, business, and agricultural affairs for two administrations and is currently chairman of the board of Transparency International USA. Anne Pence, a senior international advisor with Covington and former sustainable development and economic policy expert with the State Department and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corp., will also be part of this advisory team.

APP launched its 2020 Sustainability Roadmap this past June. The Roadmap encompasses a set of sustainability goals that includes a determination to become wholly reliant on tree plantations for raw materials sourced in Indonesia by 2015. The company also suspended all natural forest clearance on its plantations, with independent auditors now conducting assessments of APP's commitment to the internationally-accepted principles of High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF).

TAPPI
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