The EUTR stipulates that ‘operator’ companies (those that first place timber on the EU market) must ensure their timber is legal in all respects under the laws of the country of origin.
The ETTF has argued from the outset that finding out what these laws are, which is of value for their due diligence procedures, imposes a significant administrative burden on timber companies and requires an expertise they may not have.
ETTF secretary-general André de Boer addressed the issue in his comment article in TTJ’s July edition.
“Wouldn’t it be more efficient and cost effective if this information could be found in a central place?” he said. If we had a constantly updated data resource, Europe’s 28 EUTR competent authorities (CA) could also make use of it, if only to see that all stakeholders base their risk analysis and assessment on the same kind of information. It would be good for the timber industry and reinforce the capabilities othe EUTR to eradicate the illegal timber trade.”
The ETTF’s suggestion is a website where information on applicable legislation is uploaded and updated by authorities in the country of origin.
In subsequent discussions, the ITTO responded positively to the concept, and on its suggestion the ETTF was preparing a proposal on the project to the ITTO Trade Advisory Group for submission at the beginning of September.
Mr de Boer said that the tropical timber organisation ATIBT, which has worked on its own EUTR information platform, was also willing to collaborate on the new database.
He said that estimates of the start up and running costs of the database had been made, but could not be disclosed at this point.
