On 27th – 28th June 2017, Thai EU FLEGT Secretariat Office (TEFSO) under The Royal Forest Department arranges The 2nd Joint Expert Meeting (JEM 2) between Thailand and EU at Centara Grand Central Plaza Ladprao Bangkok
Mr.Chonlatit Surasawadi, Director General of The Royal Forest Department is the leader of Thai side. Together with Mr. Pralong Damrongthai, Inspector General of Ministry of Natural and Environmental (MNRE), Mr. Banjong Wongsrisoontorn, Director of Thai-EU FLEGT Secretariat Office and also representatives from The Ministry of Commerce, The ministry of International Affairs, Forestry Industry Organization, Business and Private sector were attended the meeting as leader committee. And the committee of European Union Side led by Ms. Helene PERIER and her team as leader committee.
The objective of this meeting is to discuss technically between Thailand and European Union about the content creation under The Voluntary Partnership Agreement of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade. And the results of the meeting will be brought into the negotiation on 29th – 30th June.
Contents of the meeting, The Thai side has update the Development of Forestry Policy of the country. Also appointment of the Forestry Policy Committee of the country concerned with VPA. At the same time, the European Union has updated their FLEGT and EUTR action plan assessment which get from the meeting at Brussel in the middle of last month.
The Thai side has expressed their determination to confirm that the VPA process will be supported by Thai government and relevant government agencies. Thailand attaches great importance to the participation of all stakeholders (Government, civil society, private sector) including government agencies/organizations that are not directly involved in forestry, for instance Environmental, Social, Labor and Anti-Corruption. The content will be promoted to those agencies to let them know the whole process.
In terms of major progress of Legality Definition (LD), both sides discuss the identification of wood sources which need to clearly identify the sources. Also Include the revisions to rules that may affect content under the definition. In addition, the two sides also discussed about the Legality Definition Field Test which is upcoming on the second half of the year. The results of the Legality Definition Field Test will be reported to the Working Group of The Voluntary Partnership Agreement of Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade for further improvement.
The European Union recognizes the importance of joining the furniture group under the Product Scope because those product have value of exports to the EU is quite high compared to other products. The representatives of the Association of Wood Business confirmed to the meeting that the furniture will be surely join VPA in the second phase. In the meantime, they will use the Due Diligence System to ship wood to the European Union And other countries to confirm the source of the wood.
The Thai side also asserted that Thailand would have only the Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) to accommodate the market both Domestically and Internationally. If it is found any illegal timber, the impound wood will be used for public use only and it will not add the source of those wood as another source in the Legality Definition.
For import verification issues, the Royal Forest Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Natural and Environmental have discussed about the issue of amending the rules of wood imports. In the future, the wood which is imported into Thailand must show the Certificate of Origin (CO) or other evidence that can identify the source and legality of the wood.
In addition, representatives of the European Forestry Institute (EFI) described the use of Vietnam’s document review system to be used as a guideline for screening imported wood from risk countries. The European Union has praised the advances in wood navigation control systems of Thailand which was systematically develop. Those system is important to the development of TLAS system in Thailand a lot.
![[ENG] JEM Minutes No.2 2017 On 27-28 Jun'17](https://tefso.org/wp-includes/images/crystal/document.png)
