Hai Phong Customs busts illegal import of 600 m3 of precious wood

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Wood are seized by Hai Phong Customs Department.

On December 26, a representative of Hai Phong Customs Department said that the department has coordinated with Hai Phong Police to verify 30 containers of wood illegally imported from Africa (about 600 m3).

Previously, in 2023, the Viet Nam CITES Management Authority announced the List of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora specified in the CITES Appendices (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) amended and supplemented at CITES-CoP19 (the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP19), including some African wood species.

On the other hand, the Customs Enforcement Team (Hai Phong Customs Department) received the information that some African countries do not issue CITES export permits for some wood species. Therefore, the Viet Nam CITES Management Authority cannot issue CITES import permits for wood shipments imported from these African countries.

Notably, the Nigeria CITES Authority has sent letters to exchange information with the Vietnamese authorities regarding the refusal to grant CITES export permits for shipments of rosewood and teak wood exported from the country.

Hai Phong Customs assessed that there have large volume of the import of wooden products from African countries to Vietnam across Hai Phong port, and businesses may take advantage of the situation to falsely declare wood types to import the wood types in the CITES.

Therefore, the Customs Enforcement Team has reported the leaders of Hai Phong Customs Department to carry out a special plan to strengthen control of wooden products imported from African countries.

The Customs Enforcement Team has taken measures such as: verifying and collecting information and documents on wood shipments transported from Africa to Hai Phong port.

The department has coordinated with the Economic Police Division (Hai Phong Police) and customs branches where wood shipments imported from Africa are stored in the implementation of the plan; and verified and collected information and documents of consignees declared on the bill of lading...

After more than one year of implementing the plan, by December, Hai Phong Customs has discovered 30 containers (600 m3) of wood imported from Africa as “African teak” listed in Appendix II of the CITES (Appendix II stipulates that imported goods must be granted the CITES permit).

However, currently, the enterprises named as consignees on the bill of lading have not provided the CITES import permit for these wood shipments to the Customs.

According to the reporter's investigation, currently, the “African teak wood” is sold for around VND40 million/m3. Thus, the total value of the amount of illegal wood discovered by Hai Phong Customs in the plan is estimated at around VND20 billion.

The Customs Enforcement Team is coordinating with the Economic Police Division to verify violations.

“To successfully implement the plan, the department promptly updated information and regulations related to import and export goods policies; taken control measures to promptly detect and arrest infringing goods,” the representative of the Customs Enforcement Team said.