VPA annex on product scope
The VPA annex on product scope identifies the range of timber and timber products covered by a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA). The annex, therefore, determines the parts of the private sector a VPA will affect and what their responsibilities under a VPA will be.
All VPAs must include logs, sawn wood, veneers, plywood and railway sleepers, but a VPA can also include additional products. To date, in order to cover all of their timber exports to the EU, all VPA partner countries have included additional products, as shown in Table 2.
The VPA annex on product scope identifies each product by a ‘HS' code, in line with the World Customs Union's system for classifying products. HS codes enable customs authorities in the EU to identify the product category to which imports belong.