In France, the importers association Le Commerce du Bois reports that trade was buoyed by 2%-plus GDP growth last year and continues to benefit from a rising trend in construction, with housing starts in March at the 427,000 per annum level which compares to 360,000 starts in 2016.  The French timber trade also expects to benefit increasingly from government measures to improve building energy performance and incentivise wood use in construction and from the new €10 million promotional programme, ‘Pour mois, c’est le bois’”.  This campaign is led by the French national ...