The European Union (EU) will begin implementing the EUDR at the end of December 2024.
"The EUDR Joint Task Force, initiated by Indonesia during a joint visit between the coordinating minister for the economy and the Malaysian PM last year, received support from the LMC. Some time ago, both Republicans and Democrats in the US also questioned EUDR. Thus, LMC was inspired by Indonesia and Malaysia," Hartarto noted in a statement from his office on Thursday.
Ahead of the implementation of these regulations, Indonesia continues to actively convey several countries' concerns regarding the EUDR to relevant parties in the EU, he said.
Hartarto remarked that this included encouraging the LMC to issue two joint letters to the highest EU leadership in response to the EUDR, dated July 27, 2022 and September 7, 2023.
The US is among the ranks of countries that have criticized the EUDR.
On May 30 this year, the US Government sent a letter to EVP Maros Sefcovic, signed by US Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
The US Government emphasized that implementing the EUDR at the end of this year will have a negative economic impact on producers and consumers in the US and the EU.
Hence, the US urges the European Commission to postpone the implementation of EUDR.
The letter identifies 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 guidance from the European Commission, and a temporary country benchmarking classification where all producing countries are included in the standard risk regardless of applied forestry practices.
This is because several producing countries, such as the US, whose forestry practices are considered advanced, assessed this classification into standard risk as being detrimental.
The US letter to the EU follows the US senators' letter to USTR Katherine Tai on March 8 this year regarding a calculation of potential business losses of US$3.5 billion per year due to EUDR's limitation on market access for US forestry products.
Hence, the US Government urged the EU to postpone the implementation of EUDR.
Minister Hartarto said that this had created ripples within the EU itself.
He noted that the US joining the ranks of countries calling for a delay in the EUDR will put strong pressure on the European Commission to delay its implementation.
Other EU member countries, such as Austria, have also criticized the EUDR policy since the Deforestation Law will hurt small-scale and sustainable agricultural and forestry practices in the European Union.
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Translator: Bayu Saputra, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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