HCM City (VNA) – An APEC workshop was held in HoChi Minh City on August 18 with a focus on customs best practices to identifyillegal timber and wood products.

The function was held by the APEC Experts Groupon Illegal Logging and Associated Trade as part of the third APEC SeniorOfficials’ Meeting (SOM 3).

Statistics of the International Trade Centre (ITC)show that global wood and furniture exports respectively reached 127 billionUSD and 233 billion USD in 2016, rising by 7.9 percent and 10.8 percent from2012.

Forests in APEC economies account for 53 percentof the world’s forest area. The region also makes up 60 percent of the globaltimber and wood products output and 80 percent of the global timber and woodproducts trade. This fact shows that APEC plays a critical role in promotingsustainable forest management and legal timber trade in the world.

However, illegal wood trade is now a worryingissue, reportedly accounting for 10-30 percent or 100-300 billion USD of globalwood trade each year.

Jennifer Prescott from the US TradeRepresentative Office said it is very important to control illicit woodproducts business activities since these activities will lead to forestdegradation and the loss of biodiversity, threaten local livelihoods, andresult in very serious social, politicaland economic consequences.

Illegal wood trade has become complicated,requiring APEC economies to together create stricter control tools to solve theproblem, she added.

Nguyen Van Ha, Deputy General Director of theVietnam Administration of Forestry, said with both wood export and importactivities, the country has continually enhanced measures to prevent illegalwood trade. The conclusion of negotiations on the Voluntary PartnershipAgreement on the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan withthe EU last May is an illustration of Vietnam’s commitment to building a timberlegality assurance system.

An effective measure that Vietnam has taken toprevent illegal wood trade is stepping up the customs force’s anti-smugglingactivities. Its customs agencies have increased managing imported wood,collecting information about businesses with violations in wood business, andclassifying firms with high risks of illegal wood trade so as to have timelycontrol measures.

They have also paid attention to internationalcooperation to exchange information serving the fight against wood and wildlifesmuggling, Ha noted.

At the workshop, participants from APECeconomies also shared experience in identifying types of wood and discussedcooperation in illegal wood trade prevention.-VNA