FLEGT licence fee drops
9 November 2016The UK Competent Authority (CA) for the EU Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade initiative (FLEGT) has announced that the charge per FLEGT licensed cargo it processes will be £9.60 rather than the £31 originally projected.
Regulatory Delivery (RD), which is now UK CA for FLEGT and the EUTR, released the news in the run-up to the arrival in the UK from Indonesia of the first ever FLEGT-licensed timber and wood products. These are expected before the year-end.
The authorities said earlier in the year the original figure for the processing charge could go up or down, depending on administrative costs, but the trade had expected that to happen after first licensed cargoes arrived.
The EU and Indonesian Joint Implementation Committee for Indonesia’s FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) announced that the country would start issuing FLEGT licences on November 15.
All products listed under Indonesia’s VPA must now have a FLEGT licence, which will exempt them from further EUTR due diligence, or be barred from the EU market. Non-listed products can be imported, but importers will still have to undertake due diligence.
Indonesian suppliers will provide UK customers with their electronic FLEGT licences, issued by the Indonesian Licence Information Office. These will then have to be submitted to RD at flegtenquiries@beis.gov.uk prior to the cargo’s arrival.
RD is a directorate within the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, formed from the merger of former EUTR CA the National Measurement and Regulation Office, and the Better Regulatory Delivery Office.
For more information on FLEGT licensing visit www.gov.uk/flegt and www.flegtlicence.org or contact RD at flegtenquiries@beis.gov.uk
