Reports issued in the German national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung stated that the EUTR isn’t effective enough. As a response, Thomas Goebel, managing director of the German timber trade federation GD Holz, issued a statement regarding the negative critics.
As GD Holz reported, some media channels also stated that most of the tropical timber is imported from illegal sources and that the tropical timber imports may be linked to organized crime.
Goebel explained that some of the critics were justified, because some member states of the EU haven’t been able to implement the EUTR successfully. But, he added that putting the tropical timber sector under general suspicion was wrong.
“We are strictly against illegal logging and illegal timber imports”, he said.
Goebel added that GD Holz has been supporting the imports of legal and sustainable timber products for many years now, thus rejecting the false documents which pretend the legality of timber.
Also, the 140 GD Holz timber importers are currently implementing the EUTR and have started to do this since March 2013, when the Regulation took action. As Goebel stated, the EUTR takes the right approach and GD Holz brings a great contribution on reaching the Regulation’s goal, to stop illegal timber exports.
About GD Holz
The German Timber Trade Federation (GD Holz) is the German timber trade’s neutral trade association and represents the interests of the German specialists in timber trade. GD Holz has around 900 member companies in Germany and is based in Berlin in close vicinity to the government district. GD Holz member companies are active in the wholesale, foreign trade, retail, veneer and roundwood trading sectors.
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