Ban on access to the EU market for products that have caused deforestation
Written by Institut Veblen on .
The products covered by the new regulation are wood, palm oil, soya, coffee, cocoa, rubber and beef, as well as products derived from these raw materials such as skins, leather, charcoal, paper and printed paper.
With EU Regulation 2023/111567 on imported deforestation certain products will have to meet several conditions to be placed on the EU market or exported from the EU market:
● Be deforestation-free, i.e. produced on land that has not been subject to deforestation or forest degradation after 31 December 2020 ;
● Have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production;
● Be covered by a due diligence declaration.
This regulation for deforestation-free products and supply chains is based on due diligence obligations imposed on economic actos. However, the robustness of the instrument remains to be tested. Especially since Council negotiators significantly weakened the scope of the text that emerged from the European parliament, particularly regarding the list of regulated products and the list of protected ecosystems.
Thus, several fundamental provisions for the effective scope of the instrument are deferred to further discussions under review clauses:
Maize and biodiesel are not included. These two products are subject to a review clause in two years. Cotton is not included either.
The addition of other woodlands is also subject to a review clause (in one year). Almost 60% of European imports at risk of deforestation concern soya, grown mainly in savannahs such as the Cerrado, which are not covered by the text.
The inclusion of the financial sector will also be considered only in two years
