European countries are now implementing or studying measures to regulate illegally harvested timber through the elimination from governmental procurement and international trade. In UK, the Government has developed the "Advice Note" and established the "CPET" since the Environmental Minister declared that central government departments and agencies have to seek to buy timber and timber products from sustainable and legal sources in 2000. Denmark, France, Germany, and Netherlands are also implementing or studying timber procurement policies to exclude illegally harvested timber. On the other hand, EU is now developing the "FLEGT licensing scheme" which will require wood products imports from producing countries with bilateral agreement to accompany legal compliance documents. The UK procurement policy might have an effect to shift the type of wood products procured by the government toward certified wood products, while the EU trade policy might have an effect to cause circumvention of the scheme by exporting through non-partner third country or processing to the type of products outside of the regulation.
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