HANOI, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam and the European Union (EU) have concluded negotiations on an agreement to combat illegal logging and promote trade in legal timber, the Delegation of the EU in the country announced here on Tuesday.
After nearly six years of negotiation, representatives from the European Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment and the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Tuesday initialed the text of the voluntary partnership agreement on forest law enforcement, governance and trade.
To implement the deal, Vietnam will develop a timber legality assurance system to ensure that its exports of timber and timber products come from legal sources, including systems to verify that imported timber has been legally harvested and traded in accordance with the relevant legislation in the country of harvest.
According to the Delegation of the EU in Vietnam, the country is positioned at the center of the global timber products trade. On one hand, it imports timber from some 80 countries, including from Africa, Asia and South America. On the other, it exports timber products to all the major markets.
Vietnam exported over 2.4 billion U.S. dollars worth of wood and wood-based products to the world market in the first four months of this year, posting a year-on-year rise of 14.4 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.
