The European Parliament has voted to back a ban on beef imports if they are linked to deforestation in their country of origin.
The vote, which took place on Wednesday, would see beef, coffee, cocoa, palm-oil, soya, wood, charcoal and printed paper imports impacted. Products made with these such as leather, chocolate and furniture are also included.
The new law was adopted with 552 votes to 44 and 43 abstentions.
Designed to combat climate change and biodiversity loss, the new law obliges companies to ensure products sold in the EU have not led to deforestation and forest degradation elsewhere.
The ban focuses on no specific country but countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have already suggested it will impact their ability to export palm oil to the EU.
The text of the ‘deforestation’ ban must now also be formally endorsed by the European Council before being enacted.
Requirements
The European Parliament also moved on Wednesday to include a provision that the imported products must not have impacted human rights and the rights of indigenous people in their country of origin.
Parliament also backed a wider definition of the forest degradation included in the law so that it would now cover the conversion of primary forests or naturally regenerating forests into plantation forests or into other wooded land.
As regards to how the ban will work, the European Commission will classify countries, or parts of countries as low-, standard- or high-risk.
This will be based through an “objective and transparent assessment” within 18 months of the regulation entering into force.
Products from low-risk countries will be subject to a simplified due diligence procedure. The proportion of checks is performed on operators according to the country’s risk level: 9% for high-risk countries, 3% for standard-risk and 1% for low-risk.
The competent EU authorities will have access to relevant information provided by the companies, such as geolocation coordinates, and conduct checks with the help of satellite monitoring tools and DNA analysis to check where products come from.
This would mean that the EU could determine if Brazilian beef came from a recently deforested part of the country, for example.
Fines
If a company importing into the EU is found to be in breach of the regulation, a maximum fine will be applied of at least 4% of its total annual turnover in the EU.
On the regulation, its rapporteur Christophe Hansen MEP said: “Until today, our supermarket shelves have all too often been filled with products covered in the ashes of burned-down rainforests and irreversibly destroyed ecosystems and which had wiped out the livelihoods of indigenous people.
“The new law is not only key in our fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, but should also break the deadlock preventing us from deepening trade relations with countries that share our environmental values and ambitions.”