Implementing regulations of timber legality assurance system

The Government promulgated Decree 102/2020/NĐ-CP stipulating the Vietnamese timber legality assurance system, including six chapters and 30 articles, regulating the Vietnamese timber legality assurance system for importing and exporting, indicators, competencies, orders and procedures to classify enterprises processing and exporting timber, granting FLEGT license (by competent authority managing Vietnam CITES for exporting, temporarily imported and re-exported timber shipment to European Union).

According to the Decree, legal timber is timber and timber products which are exploited, imported, confiscated, transported, traded, processed, and exported in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese laws and the international treaties that Vietnam is a signatory and the relevant laws of the country where timber is harvested for export to Vietnam.

The Decree stipulated that importation and exportation of timber must be legal, implementing import and export procedures and subject to the inspection and supervision of the customs authority in accordance with the Customs law.

Nghe An Customs officials inspected imported timber via Thanh Thuy border gate. Photo: H.N

Notably, in the Decree, it stipulated that the local Forestry agency is responsible for verifying the origin of timber before exporting, except for the case where the timber is exported by an enterprise in Group I and the timber is originated from domestically planted forests for exporting to non-EU markets; provincial Forestry agency or Agriculture and Rural Development Department should classify enterprises under the enterprise classification criteria as specified in Articles 12 and 13 of this Decree.

The enterprises importing and exporting timber are responsible for reporting to the local Forestry agency every three months and keeping records of forest products for five years from the date of export for sale.

Decree 102/2020/ND-CP would take effect from October 30, 2020, repealing Article 17 on imported timber dossiers and Article 26 on exported timber dossiers specified in Circular 27/2018/TT- MARD regulating the management and traceability of forestry products by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Accordingly, in order to effectively implement Decree 102/2020/ND-CP, the General Department of Vietnam Customs requested units to orginise sessions for customs officials in the unit to study and implement the provisions of the Decree. At the same time, communicating and disseminating the provisions of the decree to customs declarants and taxpayers.

The promulgation of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP is one of the important steps in incorporating the commitments of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between Vietnam and the European Union on forest law enforcement and forest governance and trade in forest products (VPA/FLEGT) into national law; combined with the EVFTA, it would be a driving force to help accelerate wood exports to the EU.