Share
News

EUDR: What is the US paper industry afraid of?

9 Juli 2024

Written by: Mateus Carvalho, Environmental Paper Network

EUDR: What is the US paper industry afraid of?

On 30 May 2024, some within the US administration wrote to the European Commission to ask them to postpone implementation of the EU regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). But why would the government of a country with the economic and political weight of the United States go to the trouble of making such a request? The answer can be found by comparing the letter’s arguments with those of the American pulp and paper sector: their arguments are a mere replication of poorly substantiated industry claims.  

The Financial Times gave a good summary of the EUDR’s practical implications for operators and traders in the commodities that the Regulation covers (including wood and wood-derived products, cattle, coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, and rubber): 

“The law would oblige traders to provide documentation showing that imports ranging from chocolate to furniture and cattle products were made without destroying any forests.”  

However, proving that their products have not resulted from deforestation presents a difficulty for the US pulp and paper industry, which supplies 85% of the pulp used globally in sanitary products, such as tissues and menstrual products. 

The US Government and the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) argue that the EUDR would practically ban US exports of timber and paper products, as companies cannot prove their products are not a result of deforestation.  

This begs the question as to what makes US pulp and paper producers different from the companies, in Europe and beyond, who have kept up to date with new due diligence requirements. Ultimately, the request shows their lack of confidence in their own pulp and paper industry’s capability to supply pulp that is not causing deforestation – suggesting that US paper products are causing deforestation, contradicting claims that such products are not linked to global deforestation and forest degradation. For this exact reason, the EUDR must be implemented thoroughly and enter into force on 30 December 2024. 

The Financial Times adds: “US timber merchants have said they are considering cutting EU export contracts because they cannot prove their paper does not come from deforested land.” This chimes with what campaigners focusing on the pulp industry’s devastating impacts on forests, climate, biodiversity and local communities have long reported. Indeed, numerous cases are reported of certified pulp coming from land grabbed from Indigenous Peoples

In fact, AF&PA’s response that it is “‘impossible’ to comply because paper and pulp are made from leftover sawmill and forest residue blended from different sources,” seems to be an admission of culpability. If smallholders in Cote d’Ivoire are preparing for EUDR readiness, seeing this as an important stimulus to improving livelihoods, then multinationals making high-level profit should manage too. The EUDR has given companies 18 months to comply. The paper industry cannot be given special exemptions; it needs to embrace the EUDR’s requirements as an opportunity to address its own failures. 

Reliable geo-localisation and traceability technologies – such as GPS, RFID tags, and blockchain, powered with AI – already exist, and are extensively applied at scale by the paper industry to show exactly where its raw material is sourced, from the forest unit to the finished products.  

Furthermore, according to TRASE data, the US has limited deforestation exposure on other high-risk commodities it exports to the EU, such as soy and cattle, meaning that other industries could actually benefit from the EUDR; they mustn’t be punished by a handful of pulp and paper businesses who want to hide their supply chains. It is also revealing that the North American paper industry has been progressively taken over by an Indonesian conglomerate well known for deforesting two million hectares of rainforests in its country. 

In all, the US administration’s letter to the European Commission is testimony to the hidden power that the pulp and paper sector has on the US and European economies – and that they intend to use it. We must see the request for what it is, and work harder to ensure that the EUDR enters fully into force on 30 December 2024.

Go back to the main page Sign up for Forest Watch

Image credit: casa.da.photo/Shutterstock

Kategorien: News, Forest Watch, Partner Voices, Paper packaging

We hope you found our research useful, please help us spread our message by sharing this content.

Share this: