EU rules to curb deforestation could have a “catastrophic” impact on global trade if the bloc does not help small producers and developing nations to adapt, the head of the multilateral International Trade Centre has said.
Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the ITC, a joint agency of the UN and World Trade Organization, told the Financial Times that a ban on goods linked to deforestation from entering the EU favoured big companies that can trace where their produce had been grown and risked “cutting off” smaller suppliers.
“What the biggest producers may do is, not being able to do the traceability for these small farmers, simply cut them off,” she said.
Countries such as Brazil or Honduras, among the main suppliers of coffee to the bloc, or Indonesia and Malaysia, key palm oil and rubber exporters, are among those most affected by the regulation.
Coke-Hamilton warned that exporters from those countries could try to sidestep the regulation by sending goods to countries with less stringent import rules, which would disrupt trade flows.
Depending on how well the EU addressed its outreach to developing countries the impact of the law on global trade could be “catastrophic or it could be OK”, she added.
The legislation, which will come into force at the end of next year, is the first in the world to ban imports of products linked to deforestation, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, wood and rubber.
It is part of an ambitious environmental agenda set out...
Police have launched an investigation into alleged false accusation by Park Cheol-min, a former member of the Seongnam International Mafia. Park, ahead of the 2022 presidential election, raised al...