European Union proposes to postpone law prohibiting import of products from deforested areas for 1 year

The date change still needs to be approved by the European Parliament and the bloc’s member states. New law directly affects exports of meat, soy and coffee from Brazil. New EU law will affect several Brazilian goods, including meat, a product of which the country is the largest exporter in the world. Tiago Ghizoni/ NSC /File After pressure from agricultural exporting countries, such as Brazil, the European Commission proposed, this Wednesday (2), to postpone the implementation of the anti-deforestation law by 1 year, which should come into force at the end of 2024. The proposal will need the approval of the European Parliament and member states, the Commission said, according to the Reuters news agency. The legislation provides that, from December 30th, European companies must prove that their imported products did not come from deforested areas. Otherwise, they will be subject to fines. The measure includes products of which Brazil is the largest exporter in the world, such as meat, soy and coffee. Other goods that are part of the legislation are cocoa, forest products (paper, cellulose, and wood), rubber, palm oil, leather, furniture and chocolate. On the 11th, the Brazilian ministers of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, and Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, sent a letter to the European Union summit asking that the legislation not be applied, at the risk of directly impacting agricultural exports to the countries of the region. “Brazil is one of the main suppliers to the EU of most of the products covered by the legislation, which correspond to more than 30% of our exports to the community bloc”, said the document. For Brazil, one of the main problems with the legislation is that it does not comply with the rules of the Brazilian Forest Code, said the Brazilian Agriculture and Livestock Confederation (CNA), in an interview with g1, in February this year. Currently, Brazil’s Forest Code provides that rural properties reserve part of their land for environmental preservation, while another part can be used for agricultural and livestock production. In the case of the Amazon, for example, owners can use 20% of their land to produce, but must leave 80% as a legal reserve. In the Cerrado, the Legal Reserve Area (ARL) is 35%. Difficulties in implementing the law The law has been hailed as a milestone in the fight against climate change, but countries and industries from Brazil to Malaysia say it is protectionist and could end up excluding millions of poor small farmers from the EU market, the agency said. Reuters news. There were also widespread industry warnings that the law would disrupt European Union supply chains and increase prices. Some 20 of the EU’s 27 member states asked Brussels in March to scale back and possibly suspend the law, saying it would harm the bloc’s own farmers, who would be banned from exporting produce grown on deforested land.



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