General regulations on management of imported and exported timber in Vietnam

General regulations on management of imported and exported timber in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet responded as follows:

1. General regulations on management of imported timber

General regulations on management of imported timber according to Article 4 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP are as follows:

- Imported timber must be legal, undergo all import procedures, be inspected and monitor by the customs in accordance with customs laws.

- Risk management principles shall apply to management of imported timber to prevent, discover, stop and deal with violations of law, ensuring timber is imported legally while encouraging organizations and individuals to comply with law.

- Imported timber shall undergo risk management according to the criteria specified in Article 5 and Article 6 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP on determination of low risk and high risk countries, low risk and high risk timber.

- The timber importer shall be legally responsible for:

+ Legal origins of the timber according to relevant laws of the country of harvest;

+ Comply with the request for information according to the criteria for evaluation of exporting countries prescribed in Article 5 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP and the criteria for determination of risk category of imported timber prescribed in Article 6 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP.

+ In the cases specified in Point c Clause 2 Article 7 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP: Provide documents; declare the origin of imported timber; take responsibility for the accuracy of the documents provided and information declared.

- Documents for sale, transfer of imported timber:

+ In case the importer sells all or part of the import shipment to one or more than one buyers, the importer shall prepare a packing list by extracting information from the packing list for imported timber, make copies of the timber dossier for import bearing the importer’s signature and seal (if any), provide them for the buyers and retain the original copies;

+ In case the buyer mentioned in Point a of Clause 5 of Article 4 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP sells all or part of the import shipment to another buyer, the seller shall prepare a packing list by extracting information from the previous packing list, make copies of the timber dossier for import bearing the seller’s signature and seal (if any), provide them for the buyer and retain the original copies;

+ In case the imported timber is sold to another buyer, the seller shall follow the instructions specified in Point b of Clause 5 of Article 4 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP;

+ Regulations of Point a, b or c of this Clause shall apply to other forms of ownership transfer.

2. General regulations on management of exported timber in Vietnam

According to Article 8 of Decree 102/2020/ND-CP, the general regulations on management of exported timber in Vietnam are as follows:

- Exported timber must be legal, undergo all export procedures, be inspected and monitor by the customs in accordance with customs laws.

- Exported timber shall be managed by types, importing countries and classification of timber processors and exporters.

- Exported timber shall have CITES permits, FLEGT licenses or packing list prescribed by Decree 102/2020/ND-CP.

- A shipment of exported timber that has been granted a FLEGT license will be prioritized while following customs procedures as prescribed by customs laws.

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