Vietnam is famous for its export of wood. In the country’s export – import turnover, wood ranks ten in Vietnam’s top export products. According to report from the Customs Department, until August, 2020, Vietnam’s wood export turnover has raised dramatically, reached 7.37 billion in USD, increase by 9% in comparison to the same period last year. This is an amazing growth of Vietnam’s wood industry. Out of all the wood products, crafts and furniture are luxury products according to Vietnam’s laws and at the same time, they hold the biggest volume in the export turnover, especially to market with tough demand like the U.S or Japan. According to The Timber and Forestry Association of Vietnam, when 2020 end, Vietnam wood export turnover will reach 12.5 billion USD. This is not too far as the latest report from the Customs Department until December, 15th shows that Vietnam’s wood export turnover has reached 11.6 billion in USD.

As the wood industry grows, timber and wood manufacturers are growing their interest in the export market. However, joining this market is not simple. Due to being product of timber nature with furniture and crafts listed in the luxury product list, exporting wood require a complicated Customs procedure. In the article below, the Customs procedure and the required L/C (documents) for wood exportation will be explained in details, alongside that are the important legal documents for enterprise working in Vietnam’s wood industry.
 

 
I)   What you need to know about furniture and crafts product:

 
The wood industry have many types of product, in which furniture and handicrafts are listed as luxury product and hold big volume in the country’s export volume. Currently, Vietnam mostly export its wood products and only import a small volume of luxury furniture from abroad. Furniture currently holds the biggest volume in Vietnam wood exportation. Apart from furniture and handicrafts, Vietnam also export natural wood in big volume. Alongside it, many furniture and handicrafts manufacturers in Vietnam use imported natural woods. It worth taking notice that, wood product is strictly regulated on origin and the regulating procedure is not simply on final products but also include the material timber types and its origin. In worth to take note that, furniture and handicraft products are strictly regulated on materials, with two main types of timber, natural timber and industrial timber.
Currently (2020), with the export – import wood products in Vietnam, many complicated Customs regulations have been removed. In which, furniture and handicrafts are two most focus on products, especially after 2018, when the wood industry hit a boom. This is an important policy from the government, which is a major export product of Vietnam. However, enterprises will have to take note that the procedure has get strengthened with a synchronized procedure regulate from the material source. Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development regulates all timber and wood products in Vietnam.

II)    Procedure and required documents:

First, with wood manufacture and export, enterprises will have to fulfil these demands according to Decree 102/2020/NĐ-CP regulate Vietnam Timber legality assuraance system publish on September first, 2020:
With the import of material timber, according to Point 4 of the Decree, regulations for control of imported timber:

•     Import timber must be legal, has formal customs procedure and under direct testing and over watch of the Customs department according to Vietnam’s laws on customs procedure.
•     Control of import timber is administrated base on risk management policies for precaution, discover, prevent and on time solving of illegal activities.
•     Risk control for import woods is regulated according to National definition criteria, which is mainly divided into: belong to positive geographic region or negative geography region, woods belong to risky category or not belong to risky category.
•     Owner of import timber takes full responsibility before the law about the origin of the imported timber.
With export timber, the law edict at Point 8 of Decree 102/2020/NĐ-CP, general regulations on control of imported timber, the government demand export timber must meet these requirements:
•     Export timber must be legal, has formal customs procedure and under direct testing and over watch of the Customs department according to Vietnam’s laws on customs procedure.
•     Export timber is administrated base on types of timber, export market and on the classification result of timber manufacturers and exporters.
•     Export timber must got CITES certificate or FLEGT certificate or wood type classification according to regulations on this Decree.
•     Export timber consignment that has been given FLEGT certificate has advantage in performing Customs procedure according to the laws.
In term of documents for import and export timber, Point 7 and Article 10 of Decree 102/2020/NĐ-CP regulate as follow:
When applying for Customs procedure for consignment of import, export timber, apart from the Customs Declaration, according to the laws regulation on Customs, timber owner must submit to the Customs agency at the registered location one of these L/C:

With import timber:

•     The original version of the import timber classification list;
•     The copy version of CITES certificate for export or re-export or the copy version of FLEGT certificate for export or the Timber origin classification list.
With export timber:
•     The original or the copy of the electrical version of CITES certificate for export; or the original version or the copy of the electrical version of FLEGT certificate or the original version of the timber export classification list written by the timber owner.
An important point that enterprises have to keep in mind that is Paragraph 1 Article 17 Circular 01/2012/TT-BNNPTNT published on January 4^th, 2012. In which regulate that wood exporter enterprise which use timber of natural origin apart from Customs Declaration need to submit other legal forestry documents. In which these circumstances need special attention:
In case of buying from the local timber manufacturers, these documents are required:

In case of buying from farmer:

In case of importing natural timber from abroad and natural wood products which originated from foreign country, after produce/assemble into products such as: table, chair, cabinet, eg, and is approved for exportation of these products, enterprise need to submit:
•     Declaration when importing timber.
•     L/C for exporting natural wood furniture.
•     Customs Declaration for export.
•     Invoice when buying natural materials from the timber manufacturer.
•     Forestry products classification list.
•     Invoice.
•     Packing list.
•     Sales contract.
•     Bill of lading.
•     Fumigation certificate.
With wood products that have industrial origin: MCF and MDF, enterprises need to adhere to articles regulate in Circular 38/2015/TT-BTC.
To apply for the export procedure of wood products of industrial origin, enterprise will need documents as follow:
•     Invoice.
•     Packing list.
•     Contract.
•     Bill of Lading.
•     Fumigation certificate.