Nguyễn Ba Ngãi, vice chairman and general secretary of the Viet Nam Forest Owners Association (VIFORA), spoke to Viet Nam News reporter Tố Như about this issue.

The EU and other markets are imposing stricter requirements on Vietnamese companies' production and business practices, forcing Vietnamese businesses to prioritise transparency in their production and business processes.

Nguyễn Ba Ngãi, vice chairman and general secretary of the Viet Nam Forest Owners Association (VIFORA), spoke to Viet Nam News reporter Tố Như about this issue.

Export conditions to the EU market are stricter. How will they affect the input materials of domestically planted forest wood?

The EU market has many barriers. They do not aim to ban exports from others to this market. They want to import wooden products that meet all legal requirements for the EU market.

The EU has a new law aiming that all forest-based products must be proven to be deforestation-free.

Viet Nam and the EU have signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). This is a trade agreement between Viet Nam and the EU to create a legal framework for timbers and wood products exported by Viet Nam and the EU.

This agreement deals with accountability and forest law enforcement. However, it is not enough under the new EU law.

All wood products, non-timber forest products and other products from the forest can still be exported. Still, enterprises must demonstrate that these products do not harm the environment and do not involve natural deforestation.

This is a new challenge for enterprises exporting timber and wood products to this market.

Therefore, the first thing Viet Nam has to do is to review whether the timbers are taken from activities of natural deforestation.

Shortly, we need to have very strong changes in the proof of forest origin. Viet Nam has the Viet Nam Timber Legality Assurance System (VNTLAS) and several sub-law documents relating to this issue for wood products to trace the origin of timber. However, those regulations for some other products are still unclear. Therefore, we need to continue to improve the traceability system.

Source: Viet Nam News