18th December 2017 – Mr. Boonsuthee Jeravongpanicht, a representative of Timber Certification Office, Permission Bureau, Royal Forest Department, acted as a chairman of the DDS sub-working group meeting on controlling imported timber at GS1-3 meeting room, The Federation of Thai Industries.
The key points from the meeting are as follows:
1. The Guideline of Due Diligence System Drafting
- From the 1st Negotiation in June 2017, Thai side announced that there will be only one Timber Legality Assurance System for EU, inside, and other countries market.
- Any procedures must be considered for the governance and participation and they must not be burdened operators especially SMEs.
- For Due Diligence System Investigation, the meeting resulted that it must be done in any shipments. However, the products which are licensed by FLEGT will enter the kingdom automatically.
- Legal punishment is abided by the rules or regulation of Customs and Ministry of Commerce Law.
2. Next Step
- Department of Foreign Trade will draft involved regulations to present to the meeting. Moreover, the announcement for practically applying of Due Diligence System will be draft along with the consultation with related sectors and 17 border provinces which is the channel of timber imports. This announcement drafting will be done within one year.
- Private sectors will coordinate with operators who import timber through Su-ngai Kolok checkpoint to participate in the meeting. In addition, Private sectors will consult with Su-ngai Kolok operators on the imported timber control as an agenda of the association to seek for recommendations.
- Thailand Forest Certification Council(TFCC) is accountable for adding, revising and developing any details in the document of the imported timber control draft. The draft will be presented to FLEGT VPA Ad-Hoc Working Group meeting on the 18th of January 2018 and the 3rd Joint Expert Meeting which is arranged between the 21st – 22nd March 2018. Furthermore, the test of this procedure will be done in 2018 by working with the sub-working group of Due Diligence System.
- Thai EU-FLEGT Secretariat Office will compare between the product scope list and 170 timber product list which have to be inspected by Customs and RFD collaboration. Then, the result will be circulated to participants.
