“The pressure that we as the Chamber of Commerce, but also our colleagues from Germany, have exerted is bearing fruit: The European Commission would like to extend the transition period for the implementation of the Deforestation Regulation by one year, which will provide the urgently needed time that commercial companies need to prepare “, Rainer Trefelik, Chairman of the Federal Trade Division at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ), welcomes today’s announcement by the EU Commission. In addition, the postponement should be used to revise the regulation again. “And it’s not enough to just make a little adjustment. In its current form, the regulation still contains too many ambiguities that need to be resolved.”
Deforestation regulation affects large parts of the trade
Above all, clarity must be created about which companies are specifically affected. “The regulation is by no means a niche issue,” said Trefelik. “Despite the exceptions for micro and small companies, many smaller companies are also indirectly affected.” As soon as an SME is in the supply chain with a larger company, extensive obligations also apply to it, such as the procurement of detailed information about raw materials and production processes.
“As a federal division, we have made numerous suggestions for improvement and hope that some of them will be taken up,” says Trefelik. For example, simplifications for low-risk countries and thus a rapid announcement of country benchmarking would be a significant relief. But a reference to due diligence declarations that have already been carried out should also be sufficient and in such cases no further detailed examination is necessary.
“In addition, online platforms that deliver to the EU must also be integrated. It cannot be the case that European trading companies have to fulfill a series of additional due diligence obligations while others do not have to comply with any at all,” said Trefelik. He now hopes that the European Parliament and the Council will also agree to extend the deadline. “It is important, however, that this year is used effectively to create a regulation that not only supports the protection of forests, but is also practical for companies,” the trade chairman concludes. (PWK356/DFS)
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