Aerial view of deforestation in the Cerrado, September 25, 2023 in the state of Bahia, Brazil (AFP/Archives/Florence GOISNARD)
The United States has asked the EU to postpone the application, planned for the end of the year, of anti-deforestation regulations due to the difficulties American producers have in complying, Brussels said on Thursday.
This pressure adds to the serious concerns of African, Asian and South American countries, but also of several EU states which are alarmed by the costs for their own farmers, breeders and foresters.
This legislation, finalized at the end of 2022, prohibits from the end of 2024 the marketing in the EU of a series of products (cocoa, coffee, soya, palm oil, wood, beef, rubber, leather, furniture, paper, etc.). .) if they come from land deforested after December 2020.
Importing companies, responsible for their supply chain, will have to prove traceability via geolocation data provided by farmers, combined with satellite photos.
According to the Financial Times, the US Secretaries of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, and Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack, as well as the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, sent a letter to the European Commission at the end of May to request the postponement from the implementation of the regulation to the resolution of the “critical challenges” encountered by American producers in complying with it.
“We can confirm having received the letter, we will respond in due time,” a Commission spokesperson told AFP.
“We are actively working closely with all stakeholders to prepare the application. The Commission is constantly monitoring the situation, working hard to ensure that all conditions are met for a smooth implementation,” he added.
– “Unjustified” effects –
Asked by AFP, the American Department of Agriculture (USDA) did not directly confirm the sending of this letter, but said it was “concerned” by the “implementation” of this legislation and “the “impact it could have on American producers engaged in sustainable practices”.
A soybean field in Illinois in 2018 (AFP/Archives/Derek R. HENKLE)
The USDA has assured that it wants to continue its joint work with the EU “to address the issue of deforestation without causing unjustified economic effects for producers and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic”.
Besides soybeans, the US exports most affected are wood and paper – a sector finding the new rules very complicated due to multiple sources of supply of paper pulp.
These concerns are widely shared elsewhere in the world.
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, visited Paraguay, Bolivia and Ecuador in March to try to defuse criticism from these countries regarding the feared impact on their exports to the EU and the technical difficulties and financial for small farmers.
European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius (c), visits a cocoa plantation near Agboville, April 7, 2024 in Ivory Coast (AFP/Archives/Issouf SANOGO)
In April, he also visited Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producer, where farmers are equipped with cards containing digital data.
As early as 2023, Malaysia had criticized a “trade barrier restricting free and non-discriminatory access to the market” and called for a postponement of the rules, not excluding an appeal to the WTO, in unison with Indonesia.
The two countries together produce 85% of the world’s palm oil, a crop accused by environmental defenders of encouraging deforestation of tropical forests.
Within the EU itself, around twenty Ministers of Agriculture from Member States, led by Austria and Finland, deplored at the beginning of April “new bureaucratic obstacles” for farmers, risking paralyzing investments or “creating distortions of competition” to the detriment of European products.
The legislation provides that controls target at least 9% of products coming from countries considered to be at “high risk” of deforestation, with those from “low risk” countries benefiting from reduced controls and simplified procedures.
However, in the absence of a classification already established, the Commission could consider all countries as “standard risk” at the end of December.
The EU is responsible for 16% of global deforestation through its imports, according to the WWF.
© 2024 AFP
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