News

Vietnamese wood-based panel and joinery exporters are among  the beneficiaries of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).  

The IMM market update for May 2020 analyses the latest data on EU27+UK imports of tropical wood (HS44) and wood furniture (HS94) from VPA Partner countries and competing non-VPA timber supplying countries.

EU27+UK imports of tropical timber products from countries not engaged in the VPA process were making strong gains during 2018 and the first half of 2019, but in the case of Brazil and China, there was a significant slowdown in trade in the second half of 2019 which continued into the first quarter of 2020.

Of the three VPA negotiating countries in Africa, Gabon is the largest supplier to the EU27+UK. After declining in 2017, EU27+UK imports from Gabon in the next two years were very volatile on a monthly basis but overall, on an annual basis, were flat at around US$190 million.

The two countries in Latin America that recently completed VPA negotiations, Guyana and Honduras, are currently only small suppliers of timber to the EU.

EU27+UK imports of wood products from Vietnam, the only VPA implementing country in Asia, which were flat in 2016 and 2017, increased consistently throughout 2018 and the first nine months of 2019, before levelling off in the last quarter of 2019 and first quarter of this year.