The long road to timber legality Taking stock of the EU-Vietnam VPA timber trade deal

Eight years of often intense negotiations between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) reached a milestone in Brussels on 19 October 2018. Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, and Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vietnam’s minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), signed a Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade – Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT-VPA) timber trade deal.