Regulation establishes that no product marketed in the block comes from deforested areas; Itamaraty says it is “discriminatory”
The European Commission released on Thursday (22.MAI.2025) that of countries according to the risk they present for deforestation and global agricultural production. Such a catalog classifies all countries into 3 groups: low risk, standard risk and high risk. Brazil is as a “standard risk”.
The EU (European Union) document is based on EUDR (European Union Union Deforestation Regulation or regulation of free deforestation products, which establishes rules for no product marketed on the continent to come from deforested areas.
The standard, which entered into force on June 29, 2023, applies to 7 products that the EU considers as main drivers of deforestation. Although EUDR has been in force since 2023, the mandatory application will be from December 30, 2025 – for large companies – and June 30, 2026 – for micro and small enterprises. The target commodities are:
- Bed (Meat, leather and derivative products);
- Cocoa (Gross grain, cocoa butter, chocolate);
- Café (Grains or toasted, excludes ready or instant drinks);
- Palm (Palm oil, biodiesel, soap and cosmetics that use the resource);
- Rubber (Includes any derived product, such as tires and hoses);
- Military (Grains, margarines, oils and flour);
- Madeira (Gross or worked material, charcoal and mobile).
The regulation of the EU selects each of these products and establishes 3 main criteria that each must comply for commercialization in the block:
- Deforest – The material should not come from any forest region converted to agricultural use; Measure is valid for degraded areas after December 31, 2020;
- Compliance – Each exported item must comply with the legislation of the country of origin, such as environmental laws and protection of indigenous natives;
- Declaration of “due diligence” – Term refers to the document required by the EUDR system that contains all the information of each product, such as description and evidence that the item does not come from deforestation.
If one of the 7 commodities does not meet all EUDR requirements, the company that exports the product will not be able to sell to the block and may be penalized with fines proportional to the impact of the certain item on deforestation.
The list of countries that pose a risk to deforestation guides the EU in the types of requirements that will be made for each of the 3 classifications. The criteria are:
- Low risk – have simplified obligations, do not have the need to perform risk assessment;
- Standard risk – They need to send the full documentation regarding product information and risk assessment;
- High -risk – European authorities perform more rigorous inspections, such as evaluating 9% of operators of such exports to the EU.
Brazil has criticized its classification as standard risk, claiming that the regulation of the European bloc is “unilateral” and “discriminatory”.
Brazilian claim takes into account the location of low -risk countries, which are mostly areas of temperate forests. In this group are all countries of the European Union, the United States, Canada, China, the Philippines, Kenya and others.
The list, however, considers most rainforest countries as standard risk. Itamaraty mentioned “strangeness” in such a classification.
According to EUDR, that of countries considers quantitative criteria, such as FAO deforestation rates (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), and qualitative, governance assessments on corruption and indices on political and democratic levels.
Here is the full Itamaraty note:
“The Brazilian government received, with concern, the publication by the European Commission, on May 22, of the risk classification (“ benchmarking ”) of countries within the scope of the anti -dismasting law. Brazil was classified in the“ standard risk ”category, associated with deforestation.
“The Brazilian government reiterates its critical position on the European anti -demature law. Legislation, with an expected entry on December 30, 2025, constitutes a unilateral and discriminatory measure and disregards national and multilateral efforts to preserve forest areas and confront climate change. Sustainable as Brazil, with even greater impacts for lower -scale producers.
“Regarding the risk classification process as figure in European law, the discretion of criteria for both quantitative and qualitative criteria of countries prevailed, based on a specific period (2015-2020). In particular, it is strange that the vast majority of countries still hold and preserve the largest areas of native tropical forest on the planet have been classified as a higher risk category than the practical countries Temperate climate agriculture.
“The list published, the methodology and data sources used will be examined in detail by the Brazilian government. Brazil will continue to insist with the community authorities about the importance that dialogue and cooperation is privileged through coordination and consultation with countries about the specificity of their productive systems, to seek to reduce the negative consequences of the implementation of the current and future impact for producers and the future impact and the future impact and the future Brazilian exporters.
Brasilia, May 23, 2025 ″.
