Brazil decries “green protectionism”

Tatiana Prazeres, foreign trade secretary at Brazil’s Industry and Trade Ministry, said in an interview published Wednesday that “many countries are actually using the sustainability agenda to promote their protectionist interests” — adding that Brazil will use its G20 presidency to fight “green protectionism.”

The issue will be discussed at next week’s G20 ministerial meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the first highlight of Brazil’s year-long agenda in presiding over the premier forum for economic cooperation and dialogue among the world’s leading economies.

“Our concern is that trade is not unnecessarily affected by measures adopted in the environmental area,” Ms. Prazeres said.

This includes measures such as the new European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, known as a “carbon tax,” which is levied on the carbon emitted in the production of certain goods such as aluminum, cement, fertilizers, iron, and steel.

Ms. Prazeres said Brazil will seek for such policies to be transparent, include consultations with the private sector, and be “based on science,” and that the EU’s carbon tax falls short of such principles.

“There are a lot of measures that have no scientific basis and, in short, have a green guise,” she added. Brazil hopes to use the G20 meetings to discuss common principles for new policies, rather than to end the carbon tax.

Brazilian officials have also criticized the EU Deforestation-Free Products Regulation (EUDR) on similar grounds. The legislation, which will take effect at the end of 2024, sets penalties and fines for European importers who buy certain products that come from deforested land or have caused forest degradation. 

It applies 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.

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