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The EU is discussing plans to postpone a ban on imports stemming from deforestation for a second time, after pressure from the US and other trading partners.
Several European capitals also back the delay as they argue their companies are not yet ready to comply with the legislation, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The law aims to stop European consumers from contributing to the climate crisis when purchasing products made by felling forests. It would ban imports like coffee, cocoa, rubber, wood and palm oil if the producers were unable to prove they were not grown in deforested areas.
It was first proposed in 2021 as a key part of the EU’s ambitious Green Deal climate law, which was watered down after farmers’ protests, concerns about the bloc’s flagging economy and a focus on defence investments in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Last December, the European Commission postponed its implementation by 12 months to the end of this year, and it is now mulling a further delay of one or two years, the people said.
A final decision has yet to be taken, they added, while acknowledging there was intense pressure to extend the pause. Any further delay would require agreement from a majority of EU member states and the European parliament.
The US has condemned the legislation as have commodity producers such as Brazil and Indonesia, which have just agreed trade deals with the EU.
According to a trade deal the EU struck with the Trump administration this summer, Brussels agreed to “work to address the concerns of US producers and exporters” over the deforestation law. The EU also recognised that “production of the relevant commodities within the territory of the United States poses negligible risk to global deforestation”.
The American Loggers Council said this month the EU law was “coming apart at the seams” and was a “misguided” attempt to prevent global deforestation.
India has also raised the issue with EU officials during their trade talks.
Developing countries argue the law could lock out millions of smallholders from the EU market, as they lack the resources and technical knowledge to comply.
The commission has sought to quell concerns over its implementation by publishing an 81-page guidance that sets out how companies should collect geolocation data for their products.
It has also set up its own deforestation observatory based on European satellite imagery, although trading partners such as Australia have contested the data being used.
Poland, one of the most vocal member states against the EU’s green legislation, earlier this month called for a two-year delay.
“The current model imposes disproportionate burdens, especially in countries such as Poland, where the risk of deforestation is negligible,” according to a Polish government position paper.
Warsaw, along with Washington and several EU capitals, has been lobbying for a “zero-risk” category in which many member states would be included.
They are also pushing for small producers to be exempt from reporting and that due diligence obligations should only be imposed on the operator placing products on the EU market, rather than on the entire supply chain.
Industry is split over its support for the law.
Cocoa and rubber companies including Nestlé, Unilever, Michelin and Pirelli have all issued statements against delaying the law, while forestry lobbies, farmers and magazine publishers have called for it to be simplified and postponed.
Swedish Enterprise, an employers’ association with 60,000 members, said it was in favour of limiting the law’s “complex” due diligence requirements “to the operator first placing the product on the EU market”.
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