Members of the House on both sides of the aisle are joining forces to urge President Joe Biden to appeal the European Union’s globally criticized deforestation regulations, which they claim will hurt the entire forestry supply chain in the United States.
In a letter led by Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), the legislators called on Biden to request a two-year delay of the controversial law, known as the EU Deforestation-free Regulation, which companies will be required to comply with by the end of December.
The lawmakers said the regulations are “well intentioned” but that many U.S. producers still lack “critical clarity” from the EU ahead of the deadline.
“Without more time for implementation, billions of dollars of trade are at stake. Forest product exports from the U.S. to the EU are valued at over $3.5 billion USD,” lawmakers wrote in the letter, obtained by the Washington Examiner. “Without legal certainty that U.S. producers can place products on the EU market according to EUDR compliance requirements, significant trade disruptions will result.”
If the U.S. is unable to export products to the EU under the ban, the lawmakers warned, it would cause a number of “negative economic impacts,” including U.S. manufacturing job losses and inflationary pressures on the EU. They also warned it could cause devaluing of timberlands in the U.S. and reduced economic activity with other trading partners.
“The United States is a global leader in modern sustainable forest management, and we are deeply concerned that well-intentioned regulations from Europe will disincentivize the huge investments U.S. Forest owners have made in the long-term health and sustainability of our forest resources,” the letter continued.
The law went into effect in June of last year and is meant to reduce the number of products consumed in Europe that contribute to deforestation, reduce carbon emissions, and address deforestation on a global scale.
The EU has said one of the driving factors behind deforestation is the production of coffee, soy, palm, oil, cocoa, cattle, wood, and rubber.
Under the new rules, products made from these commodities, such as chocolate, makeup, soaps, furniture, leather, tires, and more, must not have come from recently cleared forest lands and must not have contributed to forest degradation.
While the EU expressed hopes that the rules would spur on other major nations to issue similar regulations, the bloc has faced extreme backlash worldwide.
The Brazilian government issued a letter to the EU earlier this month, urging the bloc to do away with the regulations, as over 30% of the country’s exports are sent to the region, according to Reuters. Brazil’s ministers of agriculture and foreign affairs estimated that the policy could affect around $15 billion in exports, calling it “a unilateral and punitive instrument that ignores national laws on combating deforestation.”
Last week, top German officials asked the European Commission to delay the compulsory deadline by six months, saying producers needed more time. Cem Oezdemir, the food and agriculture minister, said if the December date stays, supply chains could break at the end of the year, according to Agence France-Presse.
Even Ngozi Okonjo-Iweal, the head of the World Trade Organization, has asked the EU to reconsider the deforestation ban. In an interview with the Financial Times, she explained that exporters are still lacking guidelines.
“I hope that they use the feedback that they’ve got here to relook at the system,” she said.
U.S. officials first called for a delay in May, saying that exporters would not be ready to comply with the rules by the December deadline. With less than 100 days until companies will be forced to comply, the bipartisan letter to Biden renews the call for a delay.
“America’s trading partners in the European Union will soon require our nation’s businesses to comply with costly new climate mandates that will reduce market access and crush jobs,” Steel said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
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“The export of products as wide ranging as timber and diapers will be greatly impacted, harming American jobs as well as global supply chains. President Biden must stand up for American workers, consumers, and businesses by requesting a delay of this unnecessary mandate,” Steel continued.
The letter was signed by 73 Republican and Democratic members of the House, including Reps. Terri Sewell (D-AL), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Bruce Westerman (R-AR), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and James Clyburn (D-SC).