The EU and Vietnam signed a voluntary partnership agreement on Friday 19 October in Brussels, under which only timber legally felled in Vietnam can be exported to the EU to combat deforestation.
This FLEGT agreement is based on a system for ensuring the legality of timber throughout the supply chain, a system of export licences to the EU, a mechanism for dialogue and cooperation for the joint implementation of the agreement, and principles of accountability and transparency (see EUROPE 11671).
It was signed by Austrian Chancellor Sebastien Kurz, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyên Xuân Cuong on the margins of the 12th EU/ASEM Summit (see other news). In order to be implemented, this binding agreement will still have to be ratified by the EU and Vietnam.
This is the second such agreement to be signed between the EU and an Asian country. A similar FLEGT agreement is already in place with Indonesia (see EUROPE 11677). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)