Germany’s Scholz wants new EU anti-deforestation law delayed

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to postpone new EU rules aimed at preventing products driving deforestation from being sold on the EU market — and is lobbying Ursula von der Leyen about it.

Scholz told a conference on Thursday in Berlin that he had discussed the EU Deforestation Regulation with European Commission President von der Leyen and “advocated … that the regulation be suspended until the open questions raised by the BDZV [German digital and newspapers publishers association] have been clarified.”

In March, the publishers’ lobby wrote to the German government and the Commission criticizing “impractical requirements” and a “drastic bureaucratic burden on companies.” It asked the Commission to “mitigate the risks, sanctions and burdens” created by the new law, which is set to apply from Dec. 30.

“To be clear: the regulation must be practicable,” Scholz said on Thursday.

Scholz is the first head of government to call for delaying the new rules. This comes after a group of agriculture ministers, as well as center-right politicians like German MEP Peter Liese of the European People’s Party — the political family of von der Leyen — made similar calls in recent weeks.

The new legislation has been under fire in recent months with both EU trade partners and European industries complaining about the complexity of the new rules, which will require companies to show proof that their wood, coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, rubber and cattle have not been produced on deforested land.

Countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia, argue that the regulation will establish trade barriers, hurt their small farmers and risk disrupting global trade and increasing prices.

The head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has also asked the EU to “relook” at the regulation and at its impacts on global trade, the Financial Times reported.

European businesses from various sectors, including agriculture and forestry, have also asked for the rules to be delayed as they say they need more time to get their traceability and due diligence systems ready and are still waiting on the Commission to produce a number of technical documents to guide them in the implementation.