8 December 2017 – Thai-EU FLEGT Secretariat Office arranged the Technical Meeting between AHWG and EFI No. 3/2017 at Mida Airport Hotel, which Mr. Tumnoon Akarapin, Director of Permission Bureau at Royal Forest Department acted as a chairman of the meeting. This meeting aims to discuss with EFI on a guideline of imported timber control and a guideline of unrestricted timber certification on private land.
The key points from the Technical Meeting are the following:
1. Mr. Tumnoon Akarapin notified that Video Conference will be arranged on 14 December 2017 to follow up the overall operation after the 1st negotiation and to schedule the 3rd Joint Expert Meeting (JEM 3) and the 2nd negotiation between Thailand and EU.
2. The Guideline of Imported Timber Control
- Dr. Alex Hinrichs, a representative of EFI, opined that a draft of control of importation should be detailed and the related regulations should be specified (as Vietnam has issued the regulation on imported timber). Moreover, a traceable mechanism and illegal timber protection to supply chain must be explicit that which level of law should be performed and how the draft of control of importation has been designed and linked to what organizations. Therefore, it will be discussed in the Joint Expert Meeting.
- The important information that should be described is the standard of a risk consideration and management to ensure the legality of timber.
3. The Guideline of Unregulated Timber Certification on Private Land
- Dr. Alexander Hinrichs commented that self-declaration is more interesting for the farmers than other certifications due to its simple procedure. However, the witness should be added. To be clearer, the self-declaration should be more detailed by duties of an agent who has a role between the operator and the farmer.
4. VPA Roadmap
- The LD consultants will submit a full report on LD field test at the beginning of January 2018.
- Thailand will submit a draft of timber legality assurance system to EU in March 2017, before the 3rd Joint Expert Meeting (JEM3).
- The JEM 3 will be arranged during 21-23 March 2017.
- The revised LD will be submitted to EU in March 2017.
- The 4th Joint Expert Meeting (JEM 4) and the 2nd negotiation (NEG2) will be arranged during 26-30 June 2018.
