The first round of talks between the European Union and Vietnam for a bilateral FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement will be held from November 29-30 in Hanoi, said a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development official.
Tran Kim Long, deputy head of the ministry’s International Cooperation Department, was speaking outside a seminar on the impacts of a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) deal on Vietnam’s wood product exports to the EU.
The seminar, held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), aimed to help them to adapt to the FLEGT agreement and get a good deal, Long said.
In a statement, the EU delegation to Vietnam said the implementation of the FLEGT VPA would establish control and licensing procedures here to ensure that only products derived from legally harvested timber can enter the EU.
Vietnamese senior officials, who will meet the EU delegation for the forthcoming talks, include Hua Duc Nhi, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development who will head officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Industry and Trade; and Justice; and the General Department of Customs.
Long said the EU’s FLEGT Act and the U.S.’s Lacey Act bear many things in common, but the FLEGT VPA is more open in that it allows exporters to join negotiations with the EU on the definition of illegal timber, licensing procedures and many other requirements.
“With systematic preparation, I think Vietnam won’t find it too hard to enter the EU market when the act comes into force,” he said.
The FLEGT agreement will take effect from January 2012. The Voluntary Partnership Agreement is a part of an EU action plan with exporting countries like Vietnam to eliminate illegal timber from trade with the EU. These agreements will allow for the identification of legal timber through the issuance of FLEGT licenses.
The EU is the second largest export market of Vietnam wood and wood products only after the U.S. Export to the EU in the last two years was valued at more than US$750 million on average and in the first nine months of this year, wood exports to the EU earned US$475 million.
