First modification:
The bloc of 27 countries agreed on Tuesday, December 6, to promote a new law to prevent companies from selling coffee, beef, soybeans and other basic products whose production has been linked to deforestation around the world.
The only thing missing is the formal approval of the member countries of the European Union and the European Parliament for a legislation that will put the magnifying glass, indirectly, on countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Indonesia to enter into force.
This is a law already agreed upon by the negotiators of the community bloc that seeks to prevent companies from selling basic products related to the global destruction of forests on the European Union market.
The law will require importers to submit a declaration showing that their supply chains are not contributing to deforestation or they could face heavy fines of up to 4% of their turnover.
The European Union reached an agreement Tuesday to ban the import of products including coffee, cocoa and soy in cases where they are deemed to contribute to deforestation.https://t.co/KbBRIaihwZ
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 6, 2022
The Amazon, in the spotlight
Although the law applies to European importers, it would fall indirectly on countries like Colombia and Brazil, which in recent years have registered historic levels of deforestation.
In the middle of this year, complaints from several NGOs representing the indigenous people of the Brazilian Amazon reached the court in Paris who denounce that the French supermarket giant Casino fails to protect its supply chain from deforestation.
Specifically, the complaint, made in March 2021, alleges that the French giant – owner of the Brazilian Pao de Açucar Group and the Colombian supermarket chain Éxito – sold beef from land associated with illegal felling of trees or illegally appropriated in reserves. indigenous people of Brazil and Colombia.
The new law will apply to soybeans, beef, palm oil, timber, cocoa and coffee, and some derived products such as leather, chocolate and furniture. Rubber, charcoal and some derivatives of palm oil were also included at the request of the bloc’s legislators.
Companies would have to show when and where these goods were produced and provide “verifiable” information that they were not grown on land deforested after 2020.
Once European Union countries and the European Parliament formally approve the legislation, the law would take effect 20 days later, after which large companies will have 18 months to comply and smaller companies 24 months.
with Reuters
