EU anti-deforestation law harms Brazilian sovereignty: agriculture minister

Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Fávaro said the European Union’s recently approved anti-deforestation law “harms” Brazil’s sovereignty, and “will not be accepted.” Mr. Fávaro’s comments came during a meeting organized by Brazil’s coffee industry in the northeastern state of Alagoas. “Maintaining such legislation hinders our trade relations with the EU. We know our responsibilities, but we also know our sovereignty,” Mr. Fávaro said.

The EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR), approved by the European Parliament in April, sets penalties and fines for European importers who buy certain products that come from deforested land or have caused forest degradation. The law will take effect on December 30, 2024.

The legislation is limited to a specific list of commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, timber, rubber, charcoal, and printed paper products), many of which are staples of Brazilian exports.

Earlier this year, Tatiana Prazeres, head of foreign trade at the Development Ministry, said the list in the EUDR represents 34 percent of Brazilian exports to the EU in 2022, and that the new rules frustrate and impose costs on what is expected from the free-trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur (the trade alliance between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), which has been under negotiation for over 20 years.

Back in September, Agrarian Development Minister Paulo Teixeira criticized the terms of the Mercosur-European Union free-trade agreement for their potential impact on family farming, but without directly referring to the EUDR. At the time, Brazil and 16 other developing countries signed a statement expressing concern about how “punitive and discriminatory” the EUDR could be.

Last week, Ms. Prazeres told Reuters that negotiations between the EU and Mercosur had held several meetings in recent weeks.

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