The European Union Timber Regulation that prohibits illegally harvested timber and derived products to be sold in the EU countries should be implemented taking into account existing systems in exporting countries, an Indian Government official has said.
The legislation, which came into force last month, requires operators and traders dealing with timber and its products in the EU to ensure that the wood they place on the market is sourced legally from the country of harvest.
“The purpose is noble. But then the same set of laws would not work in all the (timber exporting) countries,” said Sumanta Chaudhuri, Joint Secretary, Commerce & Industry Ministry, at an awareness seminar organised by the European Forest Institute (EFI), Chemicals & Allied Products Export Promotion Council and the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts.
The regulation will affect exports of plywood and wooden handicrafts from India, which had logged a remarkable rise in exports in 2012-13 compared to the year-ago period, Chaudhuri added.
The EU Timber Regulation requires EU traders in timber and related products to exercise due diligence and undertake a risk management exercise to minimise risk of illegal timber coming in.
“India’s wood industry is largely in the unorganised sector, even as we are one of the biggest exporters of wood products to the Europe. We would rather prefer reinventing our foreign trade mechanism in this sector than going for a complete overhaul of the system,” he said.
amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in