The European Union and Vietnam will hold talks in September on new conditions for the latter to boost exports of furniture made from legally-harvested timber under the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Support Program (FLEGT).

Huynh Van Hanh, vice chair of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCMC (Hawa), told a meeting in HCMC last week that the coming talk would be a major step towards a bilateral FLEGT’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the two sides.

The talk is expected to bring forth a definition about the legality of timber in Vietnam’s conditions, and thus clear barriers for Vietnam to increase shipments to the EU, said Hanh, who is also a member of the advisory team on the matter.

“The talk is aimed to bring agreement between the two sides (on technical issues), helping local wood processors expand exports to EU as well as increase the ability to adapt to new regulations of the EU that will take effect by 2013,” he said.

At the talk, the team will also give presentations on the situation of locally-sourced and imported timber, as well as the roles of relative sides in timber supplies, Hanh told the meeting held to give guidelines on U.S. Lacey Act and EU Timber regulations. The meeting was organized by Hawa and TFT.

The talk will also discuss the EU’s Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) that covers control of the supply chain, including the verification, licensing and independent monitoring on timber.

This will be the second round of talks on the matter, following the first one held between the EU and Vietnam in November last year. The last round of talks is expected in 2012, to be concluded by the signing of a Voluntary Partnership Agreement.

However, Huynh Quang Thanh, director of a 500-strong factory in Binh Duong Province, it is not easy to settle issues relating to the legality of timbers as wood-working enterprises have to import materials from different sources from North and South America to ASEAN countries and Australia among others.

Currently, Thanh is collaborating with TFT, a foreign non-profit organization, to apply practical procedures and strengthen a surveillance system on the source of materials, from the foreign supplier to the factory, in order to make sure that his input is totally legal.

“Using products whose source is unclear is very dangerous, hence I have to protect my business by adapting a surveillance system on the timber source, before EU apply new regulations,” he said.

Vietnam exported over US$3.4 billion worth of wood products in 2010, and sales are forecast to grow to a record US$4 billion this year. Vietnamese products are exported to 120 countries around the world, with the U.S. accounting for 38% and the EU 44%.

Both markets have adopted new laws banning the import of illegal timber. The U.S. Lacey Act was amended in 2008, including timber and timber products. Meanwhile, EU timber regulations through the FLEGT Action Plan also closely monitor timber sources.