05/10/2021
The agreement the US and Vietnam have just signed is the basis for closing the investigation in a direction favorable to Vietnamese wood exports.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan on behalf of the Government of Vietnam signed an agreement with US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai on controlling illegal logging and trade on October 1.
This agreement is Vietnam's effort in negotiating with the US to close the US 301 investigation into Vietnam's timber exploitation and trade.
Last October, the USTR launched an investigation under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 to investigate the use of timber believed to be illegally harvested or traded and manipulated the Vietnamese currency.
The agreement ensures commitments to help keep illegally harvested or traded timber out of the supply chain and protect the environment and natural resources, USTR said. As a result, Ms. Katherine Tai commented, the agreement provides a satisfactory solution to the matter under investigation and no commercial measures have been proposed at this time. In the future, USTR will monitor the implementation of the agreement by Vietnam.
The United States and Vietnam have reached an agreement on illegal logging and timber trade on October 1, 2021 (Source: Lao Dong Newspaper)
"I appreciate Vietnam's commitment to address our concerns related to the import and use of illegally harvested or traded timber. USTR looks forward to strengthening cooperation and information exchange with Vietnam, including the new Timber Working Group," said Ambassador Katherine Tai.
Agreement with Vietnam's commitment on issues related to legal timber, including the following contents: Improving the system to ensure the legality of timber; remove confiscated wood (wood seized in violation of domestic or international law) out of the commercial supply chain; verify the legality of domestically harvested timber regardless of the place of export; Collaborate with high-risk countries to improve border checks and law enforcement cooperation.
Ms. Tai emphasized that illegal timber in the supply chain harms the global environment and natural resources. This will create injustice to American workers and businesses that do not use these types of wood.
"USTR's first use of Section 301 in the above investigation demonstrates the power of using this tool to address environmental risk concerns or environmental law enforcement," she said.
The US is Vietnam's largest and fastest growing lumber export market. The export of wood and wood products from Vietnam to the US in 2020 reached 7.4 billion USD, accounting for 57% of the total export turnover of wood and wood products. Even during Covid-19, the export of wood and wood products in the first eight months of 2021 reached $6.4 billion, up 58.8% over the same period in 2020.
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