In the Nordic countries the Nordic Wood Preservation Council (NWPC) has since 1972 harmonised the technical requirements for pressure treated timber in a Nordic standard. These requirements were used by the control schemes that exist in every country. In 1976 the first Nordic standard for pressure treated wood was accepted and in 1978 NWPC changed from recommendations to approvals for the preservatives used in preservation-plants who were members in the control schemes. This harmonisation made it easy for the preservation-plants to choose preservatives and the users knew in what commodity to use the treated timber. It was also easy to export and import treated timber within the Nordic countries. In the 1980's, however, the environmental authorities in the Nordic countries went different ways to reduce the amount of preservatives, especially those containing arsenic and chromium. Even if we have the same technical requirements in the Nordic countries, we can no longer export and import of treated timber because the requirements to the use the timber are different.

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