Decision No. 664/TTg On Exporting Wood Products and Forest Products

 Pursuant to …;

ON THE EXPORT OF WOOD PRODUCTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS

PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Government Organization Law dated September 30, 1992;
Pursuant to the Forest Protection and Development Law dated September 18, 1991;
Considering the proposal of the Minister of Forestry in the report No. 1295/CNR dated May 20, 1995,

DECISION:

Article 1: The main groups of products mentioned in this Decision are wood-based products or wood combined with other materials, which are understood as follows:

1. Art and craft goods (including handcrafted and machine-made products, or handcrafted and machine-combined products) are products processed by carving, engraving, inlaying, turning, surface decoration, or lacquer painting techniques with high cultural and artistic value.

2. High-quality wooden furniture (including various types of tables including altars, chairs, beds including beds with drawers, cabinets including wall cabinets, shelves, and hanging racks) are products that have been finely processed, carved, engraved, inlaid, turned, or surface decorated or lacquered...

3. Complete products are whole items or can be disassembled but when reassembled, they can be used immediately; must go through mandatory technologies including: drying; cutting to size; planing, grooving, mortising; polishing; surface decoration.

The degree of processing and manufacturing of the product groups mentioned in Clauses 1, 2, and 3 above does not differentiate between natural forest wood and planted forest wood (except for the group of wood raw material for paper production specified in Clause 3, Article 3 below).

Article 2: Export of the following types of forest products and wood-based processed products is prohibited:

1. Types of wood, forest products, and processed products from these types of wood, forest products belonging to Group IA in the list issued together with Decree No. 18/HĐBT dated January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government).

2. Roundwood of all sizes and specifications, still in bark, peeled, or planed.

3. Sawn timber of all sizes and specifications, not yet planed or only planed on one side.

4. Bark for raw material to produce glued veneer panels.

5. Raw rattan and bamboo.

6. Wood firewood and charcoal made from wood or firewood.

7. Finished flooring panels belonging to Groups IA and IIA in the list issued together with Decree No. 18/HĐBT dated January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government) and rough flooring panels belonging to other wood groups.

8. Types of products, semi-finished products consuming much raw material such as: electric poles, rafters, various types of wooden columns (electric poles, house columns, mast poles...), door and window frames, various types of coffins (excluding coffins made of artificial boards), boxes, car chassis, warehouse shelves, formwork, pallets, prefabricated houses, product blanks...

Article 3: The following types of forest products and wood-based processed products are permitted for export and shall be approved by the Minister of Forestry and procedures for issuing production permits for export shall be stipulated.

1. Products that are art and craft goods, high-quality wooden furniture processed from wood, forest products belonging to Group IIA in the list issued together with Decree No. 18/HĐBT dated January 17, 1992 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government).

2. Complete products not classified as art and craft goods or high-quality wooden furniture processed from rare domestic wood species (excluding those specified in Group IA and IIA in Decree No. 18/HĐBT dated January 17, 1992). The Ministry of Forestry will clearly define and announce the list of rare wood species under Clause 2 of this Article.

3. Eucalyptus, poplar, banyan, acacia, and other tree species outside the planning area for paper raw materials and domestic paper raw material needs.

4. Processed products from natural forest roots obtained through lawful utilization.

5. Processed products from legally imported sources.

Article 4:

The following types of wood and forest products may directly handle export procedures at provincial customs offices according to the business license for import and export issued by enterprises and the annual export quota of wood allocated by the Ministry of Forestry:

1. Complete products from wood or wood combined with other materials, which are art and craft goods, high-quality wooden furniture, or other wooden products that are complete products processed from common wood species (excluding those specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 3 of this Decision).

2. Types of particleboard, fiberboard, plywood, veneer, bamboo composite panels, and wood composite panels processed from common wood species mentioned in Clause 1 of Article 4 and products processed from the aforementioned raw panels combined with other materials.

3. Products processed from bamboo, rattan, reed, water caltrop, water hyacinth, bamboo, rattan, palm leaves, or processed from the aforementioned forest products combined with other materials.

4. Wood chips, wood powder, paper pulp, incense powder... processed from wood, bamboo, rattan, palm leaves... or bark of trees not belonging to Groups IA and IIA in the list attached to Decree No. 18/HĐBT dated January 17, 1992.

5. Essential oils, pine resin, tree sap.

6. Unprocessed forest products: bamboo, rattan, reed, water caltrop, water hyacinth, bamboo, palm leaves.

Article 5:

The Ministry of Forestry is assigned to strictly manage the logging quotas of natural forest wood, especially rare wood species Groups IA and IIA stipulated in Decree No. 18/HĐBT dated January 17, 1992, approved annually by the Prime Minister and allocated the domestic natural forest wood quota for export processing to the following entities:

1. Enterprises having sufficient wood and forest product processing licenses issued by forestry authorities with competent authority according to Decision No. 14/CT dated January 15, 1992 of the Council of Ministers (now the Government) and having import and export business licenses for wooden and forest product sectors issued by the Ministry of Trade.

2. Enterprises with foreign investment capital granted operation licenses in the wood and forest product processing sector by the State Committee on Cooperation and Investment in accordance with the provisions of this Decision.

Article 6: The Prime Minister assigns responsibilities to relevant ministries, sectors, and People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities as follows:

1. The Ministry of Forestry is responsible for researching and proposing, coordinating with the Ministry of Trade on wood imports; regularly coordinating with provinces, cities, and related sectors to inspect the logging of natural forests and planted forests within approved quotas; the processing and export of wood and forest products from domestic wood and imported wood in accordance with the provisions of this Decision.

2. The Ministry of Commerce is responsible for strictly directing the issuance of business licenses for the import and export of wood products and forest products to enterprises in accordance with this Decision.

3. The General Department of Customs is responsible for guiding and directing local customs offices to process the export procedures for wood products and forest products for enterprises listed in Article 3 when they have production permits from the Ministry of Forestry and Article 4 of this Decision.

4. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for coordinating with the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Forestry, and relevant state agencies to re-establish export tax rates for each group of wood products and forest products mentioned in Articles 3 and 4 of this Decision in accordance with the Export Tax Law and Import Tax Law.

5. Provincial People's Committees under the direct jurisdiction of the central government are responsible for organizing the implementation of this Decision according to the guidance of competent ministries and sectors, ensuring timely prevention of illegal storage and smuggling of wood, wood products, and forest products.

Article 7: This Decision takes effect from the date of issuance, replacing Decision No. 624/TTg dated December 29, 1993, along with the attached list of that Decision.

The Ministry of Forestry shall coordinate with the Ministry of Commerce, the General Department of Customs, to guide the implementation of this Decision; and set the final export deadline for products previously permitted under Decision No. 624/TTg dated December 29, 1993, which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Decision.

The Minister, Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, Heads of Government Agencies, Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees under the direct jurisdiction of the central government are responsible for enforcing this Decision./.