EU visit seeks to soothe S.America worries about deforestation trade rules

EU visit seeks to soothe S.America worries about deforestation trade rules
by AFP Staff Writers
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Mar 14, 2024

The European Union's environment commissioner is to visit three South American countries from Friday to reassure them on looming changes to the bloc's import rules banning products derived from deforestation.

The trip by Virginijus Sinkevicius to Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia addresses concerns Latin American exporters have about the new rules, passed in 2022 and coming into effect from the end of December this year.

It follows visits Sinkevicius has already made to Brazil and Colombia to talk through the new rules with authorities.

Under the law, importers of products into the EU need to show that they come from "deforestation-free supply chains", and that the products are not made on land deforested after 2021 -- with geolocation data provided by farmers linked to satellite imagery.

Its scope covers palm oil, cattle, soy, coffee, cocoa, timber and rubber as well as derived products such as beef, furniture and chocolate.

"Some of the countries affected are asking for discussions on the details," Sinkevicius told journalists before the trip.

"Paraguay has been quite vocal in criticising" the European Union Deforestation Regulation, he said.

Sinkevicius acknowledged the new rules "bring changes compared to the way we traded in the past" but defended the law as "a turning point in the global fight against deforestation and forest degradation".

The EU is offering its trading partners technical and financial support to set up the necessary tracking systems, he noted.

"All the work has been done in a very, very close cooperation with third countries. And those efforts will continue for as long as they are needed," he said.

Illegal production has spurred massive deforestation in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mexico and Guatemala.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that an aggregate area of land bigger than the European Union, or around 420 million hectares (more than one billion acres), has been deforested around the world over the past three decades.

High-risk exporting countries would have nine percent of products sent to the EU checked, while lower-risk ones would have lower proportions scrutinised.

Companies found violating the law could be fined up to four percent of annual turnover in the EU.