The European Union’s Deforestation Regulation’s traceability requirements will be “nearly impossible” for the U.S. paper and wood pulp industry to meet, 27 senators have told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai , pressing her to push to ensure the EU’s rules target countries where deforestation is likely to occur. The EUDR bans certain commodities from entering the bloc unless exporters can prove they were not sourced from recently deforested land. …“The EUDR imposes a geolocation traceability requirement that mandates sourcing to the individual plot of land for every shipment of timber product to the EU,” the senators write. “In the U.S. , 42% of the wood fiber used by pulp and paper mills comes from forest residuals — wood sources that cannot be traced back to an individual forest plot. Deforestation is not an issue in U.S. forests, but the EUDR may still impose “costly requirements on U.S. exporters that will limit market access.
Related coverage: Britt, Tuberville assail proposed regulation that threatens paper, pulp producers