ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – Ahead of the implementation of the European Union Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR) at the end of December 2024, Indonesia has consistently continued to actively convey concerns about the EUDR to relevant parties in the EU since the EUDR proposal was rolled out, including through raising Like-Minded Countries (LMC) to issue two joint letters in response to the EUDR to the highest leadership of the EU dated 27 July 2022 (14 LMC) and 7 September 2023 (17 LMC).
The United States (US) is among the ranks of countries criticizing the EUDR. On May 30, 2024, the US Government sent a letter addressed to EVP Maros Sefcovic, signed by Minister of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, Minister of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai.
In the letter, the US Government emphasized that the implementation of the EUDR if it meets the timeline at the end of this year will have a negative economic impact on producers and consumers, both in the US and the EU. Therefore, the US urges the European Commission to postpone the implementation of the EUDR.
“The US is bipartisan in its opposition to EUDR, so the EUDR (Joint Task Force) which was initiated by Indonesia during a joint visit between the Coordinating Minister for the Economy of Indonesia and the Malaysian PM last year continues to receive support from the LMC. Some time ago, both Republicans and Democrats in the US also questioned EUDR. “So LMC is inspired by what Indonesia and Malaysia are doing,” said the Coordinating Minister for the Indonesian Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, in Jakarta some time ago.
In short, the letter identifies four important challenges for commodity producers in the US to understand and adapt to the EUDR, namely the absence of an information system, the lack of guidelines from the European Commission, the failure to appoint a competent national authority to oversee the EUDR, as well as the temporary classification of benchmarking countries in where all producing countries are included in the standard risk regardless of the forestry practices adopted. This is because several producing countries such as the US, which consider their forestry practices to be advanced and good, consider classification into standard risk to be detrimental.
The US letter to the EU is a follow-up to the US Senators’ letter to USTR Katherine Tai dated March 8 2024, which submitted a calculation of potential business losses that the EUDR would limit market access for US forestry products to the EU by US$3.5 billion per year. In particular, it was emphasized that the US pulp and paper industry should be treated fairly in the EUDR, because this industry directly employs around 920 thousand people and indirectly around 2 million people.
For this reason, the US Government asked the EU to postpone the implementation of EUDR. This has echoes from within the EU itself, namely MEP Pieter Liese – a figure from the European People’s Party (EPP) – which is the party with the most votes as a result of the European Parliament Elections in June 2024.
On 27 June 2024, member of the European Parliament Peter Liese, who is also Head of Environmental Policy at the EPP, called for a two-year delay in implementing the EUDR. Liese believes the European Commission will take this policy, following pressure from the US Government which criticized the EUDR policy and called for something similar.
The inclusion of the US in the ranks of countries calling for a delay in the EUDR will undoubtedly put strong pressure on the European Commission to delay the implementation of the EUDR. Apart from the LMC, and now the US, other EU member countries such as Austria have also criticized the EUDR policy, because the Deforestation Law will have a negative impact on small-scale and sustainable agricultural and forestry practices in the European Union, so they support calls for important action to exclude farmers smallholders and delaying the implementation of EUDR.
The attitude and position of the European Commission on this issue is expected to gain clarity after the election of a new President of the European Commission by the European Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Economy has stipulated Coordinating Ministerial Decree Number 178 of 2024 concerning the Steering Committee for the National Dashboard for Data and Information on Sustainable Commodities for Indonesia. The development of the national dashboard is one of Indonesia’s efforts to face the implementation of EUDR.
The national dashboard is targeted for completion in August 2024, or before the implementation of the 3rd JTF which will be held in September 2024 in Brussels or Rotterdam, at the same time as the “Sustainable Vegetable Oil Conference” initiated by CPOPC. (AT Network)
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