An EU delegation led by the Netherlands will visit Kuala Lumpur next month to start negotiations on the various issues.
Plantation industries and commodities minister Datuk Peter Chin said he hoped to conclude talks for a voluntary partnership agreement 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 said.
However, two NGOs have condemned the plans as “too naïve and baseless”, and said they would not be a success.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak blame the EU for importing illegal timber from Indonesia.
They claim the timber is being stolen and “cleaned” in Malaysia, and is for sale on the international market, including the EU.
And, they added, that the agreement would not be effective as it “would only be a voluntary agreement without binding measures to control the smuggling of illegal timber to the EU market”.
