Less than six weeks before the US election, 73 House Republicans and Democrats are calling for President Biden to push the EU for a 24-month delay on the EUDR.
The letter, obtained by Wood Central, comes from a bipartisan group led by Michelle Steel (a Californian Republican). It argues that the US “still lacks critical clarity from EU officials on specific data requirements, data input systems and formats, and underlying definitions that will affect the entire U.S. forestry supply chain.”
“While we collect and share an immense amount of data and information already, compliance with EUDR will require significant changes in how we collect, share, and report data – something that cannot happen overnight,” the letter said.
“Following our letter to Ambassador Tai in September 2023, many companies who export to the EU market have been hard at work over the last year trying to figure out how to comply with guidance documents that are incomplete, incompatible with U.S. practices, and confusing.“
According to the lawmakers, “the US Forest sector is pivotal to the (US $3.5 billion) EU-U.S. trade relationship, supplying key raw materials essential for numerous European industries including construction and paper goods.”
As the world’s largest supplier of speciality pulps – used in the production of diapers and feminine hygiene products, the group suppose that regulation could lead to a shortage of critical and essential goods into the block:
Of the 1.6 million tons of fluff pulp used in the EU, 1 million tons come from the US. Furthermore, 85% of global fluff pulp production comes from the U.S. Southeast.
Wood Central can reveal that the group includes representatives from the Northeast (including New York), the American South – home to the world’s largest paper and pulp industry, the Midwest and West Coast and come just months after Wood Central revealed that 27 senators—pressured the Biden administration to fight back against the rules – claiming that the traceability rules would be “nearly impossible for a significant segment of the US paper and pulp industry to comply with.”
Described as a “non-tariff trade barrier,” the senators are concerned that the European’s “expansive” definition of deforestation would consider typical agricultural practices like roadbuilding and clearing dead trees as “acts of deforestation.”
US wants delay over ‘Impossible Standards’
In June, two of President Biden’s top officials – Gina Raimondo, the US Secretary of Commerce, and Thomas Vilsack, the US Secretary of Agriculture, co-signed a letter addressed to the European Commission claiming that the EUDR posed “critical challenges to US producers of timber, paper, and pulp.”
“We urge the European Commission to delay the implementation of this regulation and subsequent enforcement of penalties until these substantial challenges have been addressed.”
The concerns come after twenty (out of 27) European Agricultural Ministers called for rules to be delayed amid fears of global supply chains, echoing warnings from government officials in China, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Earlier this week, Wood Central revealed that Sweden’s wood industry—the world’s fourth exporter of pulp, paper, and timber products—urged the Swedish government to oppose the regulation amid concerns that the “incomplete legal framework” threatens its US $18 billion-plus export industry.
At the same time, the EU’s largest member state is reversing its total commitment to the EUDR…with Olaf Scholz, Germany’s Chancellor, raising alarm at the new rules, dubbed by the European People’s Party (EPP)—Europe’s largest single political party—a “bureaucratic monster.”
“To be clear: The regulation must be practicable,” Chancellor Scholz told German-based newspaper lobby BDZV, who has now personally asked the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, to put the EUDR – Europe’s signature deforestation regulation – on ice.
Chancellor Scholz’s push is the first time a major European leader has pressured the European Commission to delay the rules, which were set to come into effect on December 30, 2024. It comes after Peter Liese, EPP’s environmental spokesperson, said the EUDR was a trainwreck and “the fault of the greens, socialists, leftists and…French Liberals.”
How the EUDR will work
- The regulation will assign regions within countries inside and outside the EU a low, standard, or high-risk level associated with deforestation and forest degradation.
- This risk classification will guide the obligations of various operators and the authorities in member states to perform inspections and controls. Consequently, this will streamline monitoring for high-risk regions and simplify due diligence processes for low-risk regions.
- Authorities responsible for these areas must inspect 9% of operators and traders dealing with products from high-risk regions, 3% from standard-risk areas, and 1% from low-risk regions. This inspection aims to confirm whether they are effectively meeting the obligations stipulated by the regulation.
- Further, these competent authorities will inspect 9% of relevant goods and products either placed on their market, made available, or exported by high-risk regions.
- Lastly, the EU plans to enhance its cooperation with partner countries, focusing primarily on high-risk areas.
For more information, visit Wood Central’s special feature on EUDR and its implications for the global supply chain of forest products from July 2023.
