JAKARTA (ANTARA) – Indonesia has urged the United States and a bipartisan group of other Like-Minded Countries (LMCs) to reject the EUDR, according to Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto.
The European Union (EU) is scheduled to start implementing the EUDR at the end of December 2024.
“The EUDR Joint Task Force, which Indonesia launched during the joint visit of Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and the Malaysian Prime Minister last year, was supported by the LMC. Some time ago, both Republicans and Democrats in the US had also questioned the EUDR. Hence, the LMC was inspired by Indonesia and Malaysia,” Hartarto said in a statement from his office on Thursday.
He said that ahead of the implementation of these regulations, Indonesia continues to actively convey some of the country’s concerns regarding the EUDR to relevant EU parties.
Hartarto said this would include urging the LMC to issue two joint letters, dated 27 July 2022 and 7 September 2023, to the EU’s top leadership in response to the EUDR.
The United States is one of the countries that has criticised the EUDR.
On May 30th of this year, the US government sent a letter signed by Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Trade Representative Katherine Tai to Vice President Maros Sevčovic.
The US government stressed that the implementation of the EUDR at the end of this year will have adverse economic impacts on US and EU producers and consumers.
The United States is therefore urging the European Commission to postpone the implementation of the EUDR.
The letter cited a lack of information systems, a lack of guidance from the European Commission, and a provisional country benchmark classification that includes all producing countries in the standard risk regardless of the forest management practices applied as key challenges for U.S. commodity producers in understanding and adapting to the EUDR.
This is because some producing countries, such as the United States, whose forest management practices are considered advanced, have assessed this standard risk classification as harmful.
The US letter to the EU follows a letter sent by US Senators to USTR Katherine Tai on March 8 this year regarding estimates that the EUDR’s market access restrictions for US forest products could result in potential business losses of $3.5 billion per year.
As a result, the US government has asked the EU to postpone the implementation of the EUDR.
Minister Hartarto said this was also causing a stir within the EU.
He noted that with the US joining the list of countries calling for a delay to the EUDR, it would put strong pressure on the European Commission to delay its implementation.
Other EU member states, such as Austria, have also criticised the EUDR policy, arguing that the deforestation law will have a negative impact on small-scale and sustainable agricultural and forestry practices in the European Union.
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