What is a trader?

A ‘trader’ is a company further down the supply chain that has not first placed timber or timber products onto the EU market. The trader, for example, could be a furniture manufacturer that sources timber from a wholesaler in the EU, which itself buys the product from outside of the EU. In this example, the wholesaler is an ‘operator’.  ekonglong office chair manufacturer

The obligations of the trader are:

• Upstream traceability – to record the name and address of the operators or the traders who have supplied the timber or timber products to you, and

• Downstream traceability – to record the name and address of the business to which you have supplied the product. Note that the downstream traceability requirement only applies business-to-business, not if you sell direct to the final consumer

• To keep this information for at least five years, and provide it to competent authorities if they so request. Therefore, companies would be best advised to introduce a record system by type that allows the easy identification of purchases and sales of timber/timber-based products. The records should cover at least a period of five years as far as retention is concerned.