This will be the first time the EU is hammering out a formal agreement with any country based on a strict criteria of “sustainability, legality and traceability” involving the timber trade.  

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin said a high-powered EU delegation led by the Netherlands would visit Kuala Lumpur next month to start negotiations on the relevant issues.  

He said they hoped to conclude talks for a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (Flegt) process by November next year.  

“Once Malaysian timber is Flegt-compliant, we can have access to the 25-member EU as well as higher green premium prices,” he told StarBiz after leading a week-long mission to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany last week.  

The minister, who was accompanied by senior officials from the Malaysian Timber Council, Malaysian Timber Certification Council and other agencies, held discussions with EC Commissioner of Development Louis Michel and EC Commissioner of Environment Stavros Dimas, as well as other government representatives and non-governmental organisations.  

Chin said the European marketconstituted 30% or about RM2bil of the total timber exports from Malaysia annually.  

He said Malaysia had practised sustainable forestry management for many years.  

“We do selective logging rather than a clear fell system,” he said, adding the European concerns were more towards legality and traceability issues.  

With the agreement, each timber piece can be traced based on the chain of custody – ranging from where it was logged and from which concession to how it was taken to the sawmill, made into finished products and shipped to which port in Europe.  

On the latest World Bank report that about 1% or 2% of Malaysia’s annual timber production of 19 million cu m came from illegal logging, Chin conceded that the country could not have 100% legal timber.  

“But we do not want our timber to be sidelined just because of some bad apples,” he added.  

He stressed that Malaysian timber such as meranti, merbau and balau were of high quality and much sought after in Europe.  

“And once we meet the European criteria, our timber will be on par with those from temperate forests,” he said, adding they would not be rejected on grounds of being illegal.  

Chin said the VPA would also provide Malaysia a competitive edge over its biggest rivals in Asia such as Indonesia, China and Vietnam.  

He said Malaysia could also start to compare prices of natural tropical forests and temperate forests once the VPA negotiations were concluded.  

Only 7% of the world’s certified forests totalling 221 million hectares are of the tropical species, the bulk of which is from Malaysia.