(Anova) - New anti-smuggling rules in European and US markets may impact the emerging Vietnam’s forestry industry, international experts told a conference in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday.

Visitors attend the Vietnam International Furniture and Home Accessories Fair 2008, held in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this year.

The amended Lacey Act, passed in the US in May 2008, gives the government the power to fine and even jail individuals and businesses which traffic in illegally harvested products.

The US government will issue guidance later this year to clarify the import declaration requirements for wooden furniture.

According to international non-profit organization Forest Trends and law firm Sidley Austin, Vietnam’s wood products are produced from wood imported from neighboring Mekong countries, where the legality of the harvesting may be questionable.

This raises the prospect that the US government could use its new law against Vietnamese exporters, the two organizations said in a report issued at the conference.

Vietnam exported US$1.2 billion worth of forest products to the US, accounting for 44 percent of its total forest product exports in 2007. The country, ranked the second largest wood furniture exporter in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has set a target of exporting $3 billion worth of forestry products this year and $3.4 billion by 2010.

Hugh Speechly from the UK Department for International Development said the European Union (EU) also has an action plan to promote legal and sustainable timber in the bloc, where governments are under pressure to ban trade in illegal and unsustainably harvested timber.

Speechly said Vietnamese exporters should be aware of the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade plan so they can ensure the timber products exported to EU markets meet the plans’ guidelines.

The EU accounted for about 29 percent of Vietnam’s forest product exports last year.

Huynh Van Hanh, deputy chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Handicrafts and Wood Association, said Vietnamese processors certified by the Forest Stewardship Council imported 80 percent of their wood supplies from the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other Asian countries.

The Forest Stewardship Council certificates prove the legality of wood products made by Vietnam firms, Hanh said, adding that more than 150 wood processors in Vietnam had been granted the certificates.

Nguyen Ngoc Binh, head of the Forest Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Vietnam should join Voluntary Partnership Agreements introduced by the EU as part of the bloc’s forestry action plan.

Reported by Minh Quang

(ThanhNien News)