US urges Europe to delay deforestation law

The US has demanded that the EU delay a ban on cocoa, timber and sanitary products potentially linked to deforestation, arguing that it would hurt American producers.

The request, made in a letter to the European Commission seen by the Financial Times and dated May 30, comes seven months ahead of the bloc’s planned implementation of the ban.

The law would oblige traders to provide documentation showing that imports ranging from chocolate to furniture and cattle products were made without destroying any forests.

In the letter, Gina Raimondo and Thomas Vilsack, the US secretaries of commerce and agriculture respectively, and trade envoy Katherine Tai, said that the deforestation law posed “critical challenges” to US producers.

“We therefore urge the European Commission to delay the implementation of this regulation and subsequent enforcement of penalties until these substantial challenges have been addressed,” they said.

US timber merchants have said they are considering cutting EU export contracts because they cannot prove their paper does not come from deforested land.

Other trading partners, particularly major palm oil-producing countries Indonesia and Malaysia, have also urged Brussels to postpone the application of the law.