Brasília urges the European Commission to reconsider its anti-deforestation rules, which could potentially impact Brazil’s exports by almost US$15 billion. The European legislation passed in 2022 includes a ban on the import of products from areas deforested from 2022 onwards, even if deforestation is legal in those areas. This new law will come into effect on December 30, despite scepticism from some EU member states. The Brazilian government sees the EU’s deforestation laws as “unilateral and punitive.”
A law aiming to mitigate climate change
The EU law will prohibit the import of a wide range of goods, including coffee, cocoa, soy, timber, palm oil, cattle, printing paper, and rubber, if they are produced using land that was deforested after December 2020. The EU, the second-largest market for products from deforested areas after China, will require firms importing goods to track their supply chains and provide evidence that their products did not originate from deforested zones using geolocation and satellite data. Exporting countries deemed high-risk will have at least 9% of their products sent to the EU subjected to checks. The EU has also offered technical and financial assistance to importers to help them meet the required tracing standards. According to WWF data, EU imports are responsible for 16% of global deforestation.
However, within the EU, agriculture ministers from approximately 20 member states, led by Austria and Finland, have expressed concerns about the law creating new bureaucratic obstacles for the farming sector, potentially hampering investment and distorting competition. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has requested the European Union to postpone a new regulation, citing criticism from publishers about the regulation’s potential impact on printed products when implemented at the end of this year. Additionally, in a July speech to the European Parliament, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that Brussels should “listen and respond better to the concerns of our partners affected by the European legislation,” especially in climate and environmental laws.
Despite this, EU officials have indicated that the commission is considering delaying the overall implementation or simplifying the rules.
Brazil’s reaction
The government of Brasília sent a letter to the EU summit on Wednesday, September 11, signed by the Ministers of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, and Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, asking that the legislation not be applied, as it could directly impact exports to countries in the region. According to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the Brazilian government indicates that in 2023, exports to the EU reached US$46.3 billion. They believe the law could reduce these exports by almost US$15 billion.
The Brazilian government views the EU Deforestation Regulation as a unilateral and punitive instrument that disregards national laws on combating deforestation. The United States, as well as Latin American, Asian, and African countries, are concerned about the administrative burden the new law places on farmers and the forestry sector. The commission declined to comment on the Brazilian letter but said it would reply “in due course.”
The legislation’s implementation at the end of this year coincides with the governments of Mercosur and the European Union’s intention to close the trade agreement between the blocs. European negotiators recently returned to Brasília to resume talks.
The European Parliament
Also, the first reaction from the European Parliament comes from the largest group. The EPP called the EU to postpone the implementation of the law.
However, Pascal Canfin, a Renew MEP and Coordinator of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in Parliament, noted in a post on X that “Brazil finds the deforestation regulation problematic because it covers 1/3 of its exports linked to deforestation. It is up to 🇧🇷 to ban deforestation, not the EU to change its rules! Vietnam is already doing so!”
