The EU law would oblige traders to prove that products were made without destroying any forests
The US has requested the EU to delay implementing a ban on cocoa, timber, and sanitary products linked to deforestation, arguing it would harm American producers. The request, made in a letter to the European Commission dated May 30, comes seven months ahead of the bloc’s planned implementation of the ban.
The law would oblige traders to provide documentation showing that imports ranging from chocolate to furniture and cattle products were made without destroying any forests.
In the letter, Gina Raimondo and Thomas Vilsack, the US secretaries of commerce and agriculture, respectively, and trade envoy Katherine Tai said the deforestation law posed “critical challenges” to US producers.
“We therefore urge the European Commission to delay the implementation of this regulation and subsequent enforcement of penalties until these substantial challenges have been addressed,” they said.
The sectors most affected by the regulation in the US, the EU’s second-largest import partner, are the timber, paper and pulp industries. The EU imported about $3.5bn of American forest-based products in 2022, according to US International Trade Commission figures.
US officials and industry groups claim the law presents significant challenges, such as the difficulty of tracing paper and pulp sources. The American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) argues compliance is impossible with current technology.
The law requires evidence that products come from deforestation-free land after 2020, including a statement with geolocation data. But the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) said it was “impossible” to comply because paper and pulp are made from leftover sawmill and forest residue blended from different sources.
“This makes tracing each individual wood chip back to the original forest plot of land effectively impossible. Additionally, the technology needed to trace our fibre flow to comply with this requirement does not currently exist,” AF&PA said.
US lawmakers and some EU officials also oppose the regulation, citing trade restrictions and the impact on small producers. The EU bloc’s development commissioner Jutta Urpilainen and agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski have called for a delay, as have a majority of EU agriculture ministers led by Austria, who also wanted to exempt small farmers from the rules.
Other trading partners, particularly major palm oil-producing countries Indonesia and Malaysia, have also urged Brussels to postpone the application of the law.
The EU’s environment commissioner supports the law, aiming to ensure imports are from deforestation-free areas. The EU will categorize all countries as “standard risk” initially, with customs checking a percentage of imports based on deforestation risk. The European Commission has acknowledged the US request and will respond in due course.
The International Trade Centre, a UN-backed body, said the law could cut out small producers from developing countries, who lack the technology to verify that their goods have not been grown on deforested land, from the supply chain.
Source: Financial Times, June 20, 2024
