On 25 January 2018, Thai EU FLEGT secretariat office arranged the FLEGT Sub-Committee Meeting No.1/2018 at Kasetsart University Alumni Association under Royal Patronage, Bangkok, which has Mr. Sapol  Boonsermsuk the Director of  International Forestry Cooperation Office as a chairman of the meeting.

The key points from the first meeting of the FLEGT Sub-Committee are following:

1.Update of FLEGT VPA Progress

• To implement the VPA progress, 10 annex is needed. However, Thailand has been operating 4 annex which are product scope, LD, TLAS, and SCC.

2. The LD Field Test Report and The Guideline of The LD Draft Development

• From the presentation by the consultant of LD field test, the meeting suggested scoping the parts CITES that will be in the LD and suggested to clearly indicate the document of Certificate of Compliance. Moreover, the meeting also suggested considering about SMEs before legislating any regulations.

3. The Guideline of Developing The TLAS Draft

• The Private Forest Cooperative Limited was added to the TLAS sub-working group. This sub-working group has to consult and bring the result into the 2nd AHWG meeting and the meeting with EFI in February. Moreover, the consultant of TEFSO informed the meeting that the training of traceability by the experts from FAO will be arranged on the 5th – 9th of February and the training of TLAS will be arranged on the 19th – 23rd of February.

4. The Guideline of Unregulated Species Verification on Private Land

• The representative of The Federations of Thai Industries presented about this issue. For the exporting of the wood product by SMEs, this issue will be discussed at the sub-working group meeting later. However, the meeting appointed the sub-working group submitting the English description by the 8th of February 2018 to EFI to consider and comment on this issue at EFI mission.

5. The Guideline of Imported Timber Control

• The representative of The Federations of Thai Industries informed the meeting about the result of the consultation with Ministry of Commerce on legislating DDS regulations and the results of DDS small-working group meeting. The meeting appointed the sub-working group on DDS  submitting the English description by the 8th of February 2018.

6. FLEGT VPA Main Text 

• Department of European Affairs added the comment on the definition of the word to make the consistency all of the main text. However, the meeting resolved to follow up the feedback of this main text from other relevant sectors and agreed to use the term of ‘no comment on that issue’ if those sectors do not reply within the 31st of January 2018.

7. VPA Roadmap and The Agenda of JEM3

• The meeting adopted the agenda and suggested presenting the gap issue in the update of FLEGT VPA progress at JEM3. TEFSO will submit the agenda to EU and will inform the meeting through e-mail if EU revises the agenda.

8. Others

• The consultation of the sub-working group on LD had resolved that the furniture will be brought into product scope annex. However, the meeting suggested defining the scope of the word ‘furniture’ which should be replaced by the word ‘wood product’. Thailand will present this issue at JEM3 later.

9. The Next FLEGT Sub-Committee Meeting

• The 2nd FLEGT Sub-Committee meeting will be arranged on the 5th of March 2018.