The US has demanded that the EU delay a ban on cocoa, timber and sanitary products potentially linked to deforestation, arguing that it would hurt American producers. The request comes seven months ahead of the bloc’s planned implementation of the ban. 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. Gina Raimondo, Thomas Vilsack and trade envoy Katherine Tai, said that the deforestation law posed “critical challenges” to US producers. …US timber merchants have said they are considering cutting EU export contracts because they cannot prove their paper does not come from deforested land. The sectors most impacted by the regulation in the US, the EU’s second-largest import partner, are the timber, paper and pulp industries. The EU imported about $3.5bn of American forest-based products in 2022, according to US International Trade Commission figures.