An independent TD has said it is an “absolute injustice” that the EU is demanding national nature restoration plans while negotiating trade agreements with countries engaged in deforestation.
A law to ban the importation of products linked to deforestation is required against a background where the EU was effectively forcing its own farmers to plant and reinstate forestry, Sean Canney said.
MEPs recently voted in favour of new legislation under which cattle; cocoa; coffee; palm oil; soya; and wood can only be supplied to the EU if it does not come from deforested land or has led to forest degradation after December 31, 2020.
Welcoming the approval by the European Parliament of a law that will ban all importation of beef into the EU from countries involved in any destruction of forestry, Deputy Canney said:
“It is an absolute injustice that the EU [is] demanding national nature restoration plans while negotiating trade agreements with countries that are destroying forest tracts the size of Ireland.”
This law, he said, would signal a commitment by the parliament and the commission to ensure that any foodstuffs imported to the EU were produced and processed to environmental regulations, at least equal to that demanded of domestic food producers and processors.
Companies found to be non-compliant with the law will be fined at least 4% of their annual turnover in the EU.
Deforestation in Brazil
Deputy Canney said there have been objections to the new law by the Brazilian agri-business group ABAG. Commenting that this “reveals” why the law was required in the first place, he said:
“If these countries were abiding by their own codes and regulations, then there’d be no need for them to be alarmed at the introduction of the new law in the parliament.”
The approval of the law by the parliament “does not respect” Brazil’s forestry code, which provides for legal deforestation of part of rural properties, ABAG president, Luiz Carlos Correa Carvalho told Reuters.
“Depending on the region, Brazilian law allows the use of 80% of the property for agriculture, leaving the remainder as an environmental reserve.
“In the Amazon region, on the other hand, the forest code provides that 80% of the forest on a property is maintained,” ABAG told Reuters.
The text of the regulation must now be formally endorsed by the EU Council.