Brazil has written to the EU to ask it hold off on implementing deforestation law
“Brazil has asked the European Union to hold back on implementing its deforestation law. The EU must get on with implementing the deforestation law, but in return we need to have talks about supporting Brazil to rehabilitate the rainforest and look at just transition for legitimate local Brazilian farmers but not huge agri-businesses like Cargill. The UK must also implement the same law and should also put tariffs on Soya from the USA.”
{Earth and Leaf Editorial}
Brazil has written to the EU to ask it hold off on implementing deforestation law
REMOVED PHOTO (280)
epa10180074 View of the fire in a farm the Brazilian Amazon, in the Manaquiri, Brazil, 09 September 2022(issued 12 September 2022). Deforestation and fires coexist, side by side, with the asphalting works of BR-319, the controversial Brazilian highway that is leaving a trail of devastation as it passes through the Amazon. EPA-EFE/Raphael Alves
Brazil asks EU to hold off on implementing deforestation law
“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,” the letter signed by the ministers of agriculture and foreign Affairs said.
“In order to avoid impact on our trade relations, we request that the EU not implement the EUDR (EU Deforestation-free Regulation) {deforestation law} at the end of 2024 and urgently reassess its approach to the issue,” the ministers wrote.
Brazil’s exports of these products in 2023 reached $46.3 billion dollars, according to Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade data. The EUDR could affect some $15 billion in exports, the government calculates.
“We consider the EUDR to be a unilateral and punitive instrument that ignores national laws on combating deforestation,” the letter complained, adding that the European law discriminated against countries with forest resources and increased cost for producers and exporters.
The EUDR has been an irritant in EU trade talks with Brazil and its partners in the South American Mercosur trade bloc.