"Enviromental NGOs call for EU not to sign timber deal with Vietnam", 14 October 2017

A group of environmental NGOs has called on the European Union to postpone the signing of a trade deal on tropical timber with Vietnam until Vietnam declares a moratorium on illegal timber import from Cambodia’s natural forests.

Seven non-governmental organizations issued a joint statement...saying that there are serious flaws in the agreement because of continuous flow of illegal timber into Vietnamese market from neighboring countries, especially from Cambodia.

Ouch Leng, an environmental activist and chairman of Cambodia Human Rights Task Forces NGO, said the EU must not sign a timber trade agreement with Vietnam since Vietnamese timber traffickers are laundering illegal timber from Cambodia.

...The group said that Vietnamese timber traders were bribing Cambodian officials in the provinces to get timber deals while indigenous people were coerced to sell their ancestral forests for a pittance.