Final negotiations to complete a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance andTrade (FLEGT) and Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between theEuropean Union (EU) and Vietnam is expected to be completed by late2015.
Enactment of the agreements is expected to offer additionalopportunities for Vietnam timber exports, while stopping the sale ofillegal timber.
The agreements aim to ensure thelegality of timber and timber products entering 28 countries in the EUmarket, while helping to maintain and expand the export of timber andtimber products from Vietnamese enterprises, which is subject tochanging EU market requirements as of March 2013.
Nguyen Tuong Van, Director of the Steering Committee of VPA/FLEGT, saidthat following negotiations, she expected that timber exports to the EUmarket would considerably increase, reported Thoi Bao Tai Chinh online.
Van added that the great challenges in thenegotiations included following the TLAS - Timber Legality AssuranceSystem to ensure Vietnamese timber products meet international standardson the origin of timber.
She said that apart fromefforts made by authorized bodies, timber processors and exportersneeded to join this "play-ground" by focusing on their product qualityand conducting business in compliance with the law.
They also needed to have certain knowledge about VPA and to consider itto be a "visa" for Vietnamese timber products to enter the EU market,while understanding that this is an opportunity to eliminate illegaltimber trading and unregulated timber companies from doing business inVietnam.
According to a report on the negotiationsbetween Vietnam and the EU of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, Vietnam now has more than 3,500 companies in the timberbusiness. Of note, timber volume and exporting of timber products to theEU accounted for 20 percent of the total volume of all exports fromVietnam.
Last year, the country earned 6.2 billionUSD from the export of wood and wood products, a year-on-year increaseof 11.5 percent compared with 5.4 billion USD in 2013, and ranked secondamong countries exporting furniture in Asia. According to the forecast,this year wood and timber product exports are to grow by 15 percent,reaching at least 7.2 billion USD.
Over the years,the export of timber has seen significant improvements in its quality,especially as domestic enterprises have increased their market share tomatch those of FDI enterprises, according to the vice chairman of theHandicrafts and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (Hawa),Huynh Van Hanh.
He noted that wood and timberexporters still faced difficult times, especially due to "barriers" fromstrict requirements in major markets, including the EU.
Van said under the State's regulation on forest management, incompliance with FLEGT, it is required that any timber products exportedto the EU must receive chain of custody certification. Further, noillegal timber products or unverified products are allowed to be addedto exported timber products.
As the fact that localraw materials can now meet about 40 to 50 percent of input materials forexport processing, while the remainder still relies on imported rawmaterials. Therefore, local processors have difficulties in determiningwhether imported timber is reliable, she said.
According to Van, most of the wood processing enterprises in Vietnam aresmall and medium-sized enterprises. No record of wood procurement iskept by processors, as they just hand over hand written notes to verifytheir purchases. This has been recognized as a major problem that mustbe quickly solved.
Nguyen Ton Quyen, General Secretary ofthe Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (Vietfores), hassaid that the General Administration of Customs statistics showed that,last year, Vietnam imported raw wood materials valued at 1.639 billionUSD. Clearly, as the importation of raw materials and shipping costswere increasing, Vietnamese wood processing companies will find itdifficult to compete with companies, such as those in China orMalaysia./.
Enactment of the agreements is expected to offer additionalopportunities for Vietnam timber exports, while stopping the sale ofillegal timber.
The agreements aim to ensure thelegality of timber and timber products entering 28 countries in the EUmarket, while helping to maintain and expand the export of timber andtimber products from Vietnamese enterprises, which is subject tochanging EU market requirements as of March 2013.
Nguyen Tuong Van, Director of the Steering Committee of VPA/FLEGT, saidthat following negotiations, she expected that timber exports to the EUmarket would considerably increase, reported Thoi Bao Tai Chinh online.
Van added that the great challenges in thenegotiations included following the TLAS - Timber Legality AssuranceSystem to ensure Vietnamese timber products meet international standardson the origin of timber.
She said that apart fromefforts made by authorized bodies, timber processors and exportersneeded to join this "play-ground" by focusing on their product qualityand conducting business in compliance with the law.
They also needed to have certain knowledge about VPA and to consider itto be a "visa" for Vietnamese timber products to enter the EU market,while understanding that this is an opportunity to eliminate illegaltimber trading and unregulated timber companies from doing business inVietnam.
According to a report on the negotiationsbetween Vietnam and the EU of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, Vietnam now has more than 3,500 companies in the timberbusiness. Of note, timber volume and exporting of timber products to theEU accounted for 20 percent of the total volume of all exports fromVietnam.
Last year, the country earned 6.2 billionUSD from the export of wood and wood products, a year-on-year increaseof 11.5 percent compared with 5.4 billion USD in 2013, and ranked secondamong countries exporting furniture in Asia. According to the forecast,this year wood and timber product exports are to grow by 15 percent,reaching at least 7.2 billion USD.
Over the years,the export of timber has seen significant improvements in its quality,especially as domestic enterprises have increased their market share tomatch those of FDI enterprises, according to the vice chairman of theHandicrafts and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (Hawa),Huynh Van Hanh.
He noted that wood and timberexporters still faced difficult times, especially due to "barriers" fromstrict requirements in major markets, including the EU.
Van said under the State's regulation on forest management, incompliance with FLEGT, it is required that any timber products exportedto the EU must receive chain of custody certification. Further, noillegal timber products or unverified products are allowed to be addedto exported timber products.
As the fact that localraw materials can now meet about 40 to 50 percent of input materials forexport processing, while the remainder still relies on imported rawmaterials. Therefore, local processors have difficulties in determiningwhether imported timber is reliable, she said.
According to Van, most of the wood processing enterprises in Vietnam aresmall and medium-sized enterprises. No record of wood procurement iskept by processors, as they just hand over hand written notes to verifytheir purchases. This has been recognized as a major problem that mustbe quickly solved.
Nguyen Ton Quyen, General Secretary ofthe Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (Vietfores), hassaid that the General Administration of Customs statistics showed that,last year, Vietnam imported raw wood materials valued at 1.639 billionUSD. Clearly, as the importation of raw materials and shipping costswere increasing, Vietnamese wood processing companies will find itdifficult to compete with companies, such as those in China orMalaysia./.
