The derogation provided for in Article 1 shall apply to supplies of wood products by taxable persons including standing timber, round or cleft working wood, fuel wood, timber products, as well as square edged or chipped wood and wood in the rough, processed or semi-manufactured wood.

The objective is twofold: on the one hand, enabling the European industry (e.g. chemical, health, mining, energy, pulp and paper, fibre-based products and wood, textile, starch, and food processing industries) to develop new products and processes meeting industrial and societal demands using preferably environmentally friendly and sustainable production methods and competitive and enhanced biotechnology-based alternatives to replace established ones; on the other hand, harnessing the potential of biotechnology for detecting, monitoring, preventing and removing pollution.

- Standardisation facilitates trade of wood and paper products.

More intensive recycling of wood and paper, rather than disposing of them in landfill, prolongs their ability to retain carbon.

In addition, paper and wood products provide additional storage for the carbon removed by forests and increased paper and wood recycling, rather than landfilling, prolongs the capacity of wood products to retain carbon.

Tropical products account for a small proportion of total world exports of wood, namely 16% of industrial roundwood, 13% of sawnwood, pulp and paper and 39% of panels.