(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he’s asked the European Union to suspend a new regulation designed to reduce deforestation, as criticism mounts over the new rules.
The German leader’s comments add to objections voiced by nations like Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia, which argue that it will have a negative impact across global commodities markets. Scholz said he shared concerns raised by publishers about the regulation, known as EUDR, and its potential impact on print products when it’s implemented at the end of this year.
“To be clear: the regulation must be practicable,” Scholz said on Thursday at a BDZV newspaper lobby congress in Berlin. Scholz said he had personally asked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, to put the EUDR on hold until issues raised by the BDZV have been clarified.
The push back against the deforestation rules — aimed at tackling biodiversity loss — partly reflects resentment from the EU’s trading partners over the bloc’s attempts to impact climate policies beyond its borders. It also coincides with criticism of the EU’s green agenda by some European businesses, concerned that environmental regulations could threaten their competitiveness.
The law, formed in the wake of a pledge made at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow three years ago, has also been slammed for creating red tape and not giving those impacted, including farmers, enough time to prepare. The EUDR also puts at risk more than $110 billion of annual trade across six continents.
In a statement in March, the BDZV said it and other lobby groups had written to the German government and the commission urging them to “mitigate the risks, sanctions and burdens for companies posed by the regulation.”
In its current form, the EUDR represents “not only a major threat to the production of printed products for the general public, but also to press products, election documents, technical documentation, labels and packaging, which are part of critical infrastructure,” according to the statement.
Brazil has also urged the EU to delay implementing the law. In a letter to EU officials, seen by Bloomberg, it said the rules cover more than 30% of its exports to the bloc.
“The EUDR was designed without a proper understanding of the production and export processes of different products and of the realities on the ground in each country,” Mauro Vieira, Brazil’s minister for foreign affairs, and Carlos Favaro, minister for agriculture, wrote to EU commissioners, including Maros Sefcovic, the bloc’s Green Deal chief. “We consider that unilateral, coercive, and punitive measures erode trust.”
A spokesman for the EU confirmed the receipt of the Brazilian letter, but declined to comment on Scholz’ remarks.
Scholz’s comments and Brazil’s call for a delay add to pressure on the EU to postpone the rules, which aim to tackle the deforestation caused by the expansion of commodities industries such as beef, timber, soy and coffee.
Indonesia and Malaysia have also criticized the law, which they say would hit smallholder farmers the hardest. Several EU countries and lawmakers have also slammed the law for penalizing the agricultural sector.
The Financial Times earlier reported the letter from Brazil.
--With assistance from Simone Iglesias, Agnieszka de Sousa and Ewa Krukowska.
(Updates with Scholz comments starting in first paragraph.)
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