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Brussels is using incorrect data for an initiative to ban imports from deforested land, Australia and Brazil allege, as they step up demands for the new regime to be delayed.
Several countries contend that the EU could unilaterally bar imports of palm oil, leather, coffee and many other goods from areas that should be exempt when the law comes into force on December 31.
“The EU’s map is not a single source of truth but acts as one possible source of information for EU operators and competent authorities to determine if deforestation has occurred,” said a spokesperson for the Australian embassy in Brussels.
The countries said differences emerged between Canberra’s 2023 Forests of Australia map and a 2020 map from the EU Observatory on deforestation and forest degradation, because they used different definitions of forested areas.
The EU law aims to prevent consumption within the bloc from causing deforestation beyond its borders by banning the import of products made from cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee and rubber linked to cleared land. Trade in these goods and related products was worth about €126bn in 2022, according to S&P Global.
The rules, agreed by EU policymakers in December 2022, also apply internally to EU countries but have been opposed by more than 20 of the bloc’s agricultural ministries for the administrative burden that it will heap on their countries’ foresters and farmers.
Austria, backed by six other member states including Finland and Greece, called on Brussels to “firmly reconsider the timeframe for the application of the deforestation regulation” at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers on Monday. It added that the commission should also “adequately address serious concerns related to its implementation”.
The Australian embassy said Brussels had yet to publish guidance on how to comply with the rules and several member states had not yet nominated a national authority to police imports.
“Australian producers need to prepare for export to Europe months before the year-end deadline to account for shipping time, yet significant questions remain such as clarification about what counts as a predominantly agricultural land use,” the embassy said, adding that it had requested a delay in implementing the rules “until all required arrangements are understood and effectively in place”.
“Our private sector has documented multiple cases of cocoa and coffee plantations, as well as commercially grown tree plantations, that are misidentified as forests,” said Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva, Brazil’s ambassador to the EU.
Diplomats said at least three other countries including Canada had complained about the maps. Australia, Brazil and Colombia are among the countries to have joined the US in calling for the EU to delay the legislation. Two European commissioners have backed a pause until there is more comprehensive guidance for countries on how to comply.
“European operators and competent authorities should co-operate with producer governments to use local monitoring systems that have much higher precision rates,” Da Costa e Silva said, adding Brazil had a free-to-use “state of the art” monitoring system.
He criticised the EU’s “imposition of European standards and norms on other countries” without collaboration and warned that producers would have to spend millions of euros on private sector compliance systems.
Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies said it tracked deforestation in a similar way to the EU, but the latter’s definition “would also include areas that are not considered as deforestation in Colombia, for example the conversion of areas of secondary vegetation”.
In guidance issued to producing countries, the commission emphasised that the maps were “a tool to help companies to ensure compliance” and were not mandatory, and that other “more granular or detailed” information could be used as a guide.
Environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius has said there are no plans to delay the law. Sinkevičius, a Lithuanian politician who also ran in EU elections in June, is leaving the commission to take up a seat in the European parliament this week.
The commission in March agreed to delay the classification of countries as having either “low”, “standard” or “high” deforestation risks, a system that will eventually determine the amount of customs checks required for imports.
Data visualisation by Jana Tauschinski
