The United States and Canada are pressing the European Union for further changes to its deforestation regulation, seeking lighter traceability and documentation requirements for timber from countries with low deforestation risk.<\/p>\n
The pressure combines American industry lobbying with Canadian requests raised through CETA discussions. Both countries want the EU to give greater weight to established forest governance when determining the information suppliers must provide to European buyers.<\/p>\n
In the latest US intervention dated October 6, Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder called for the removal of EUDR compliance burdens for countries with negligible deforestation risk, including the United States. He urged the European Commission to address the issue in its review of the regulation before the application deadline.<\/p>\n
US forest industry pushes for changes through trade talks<\/strong><\/p>\n More than 1,000 American forestry and forest products companies and associations have backed a letter urging President Donald Trump to pursue further EUDR changes with European leaders, according to Decorative Hardwoods Association, one of the supporting organisations.<\/p>\n The coalition argues that the American forest products supply chain presents little risk of contributing to global deforestation and that exporters should therefore face fewer compliance requirements. Its request concerns the substance of the rules, seeking the removal of obligations it considers unnecessary for US suppliers.<\/p>\n Washington has already secured a commitment to address the issue within its trade relationship with Brussels. The August 2025 EU-US framework recognised that production of relevant commodities in the United States presents negligible risk to global deforestation and committed the EU to address American producers\u2019 and exporters\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n However, that political commitment did not establish a separate exemption for American timber. In discussions with Canada, the EU confirmed that the statement did not grant preferential treatment under the EUDR.<\/p>\n Canada targets geolocation and forest manufacturing residues<\/strong><\/p>\n Canada is seeking specific changes affecting lumber, panels, pulp, paper and other covered forest products.<\/p>\n At the June 4 CETA forest products dialogue, recorded in a joint report published in September, Ottawa repeated its request for a negligible-risk category for countries with low deforestation rates and strong forest governance. Canada also asked for products made from forest manufacturing residues to be excluded from the regulation.<\/p>\n The request addresses the documentation required when wood from different sources passes through processing operations. An exclusion for manufacturing residues would change the treatment of products made using those materials, rather than simply reducing the number of declarations businesses submit.<\/p>\n Canada also challenged how the EU\u2019s simplifications operate across borders. Its representatives questioned whether relief for micro and small primary operators would be as accessible to suppliers outside the EU as to European producers.<\/p>\n For downstream manufacturing, Ottawa highlighted the difference between paper made within the EU and paper manufactured in Canada before export to Europe. The Commission rejected Canada\u2019s description of unequal treatment but acknowledged challenges associated with traceability.<\/p>\n Earlier Canadian proposals included removing geolocation requirements, accepting regional sourcing information and introducing an exemption for imports below a minimum value threshold. Ottawa has also sought assurances that any favourable arrangements offered to other trading partners would be available to Canada.<\/p>\n Low-risk classification leaves sourcing requirements in place<\/strong><\/p>\n The main point of disagreement is the extent of relief available for wood originating in low-risk countries.<\/p>\n Under the EU framework, qualifying low-risk sourcing allows operators to dispense with the full risk assessment and risk mitigation stages of due diligence. They must nevertheless collect information demonstrating that products comply with the regulation. Under the standard procedure, this includes identifying the plots where the wood was harvested.<\/p>\n For suppliers outside the EU, these obligations are generally transmitted through European customers, which need the relevant origin and legality information before placing covered products on the market.<\/p>\n The Commission has reduced obligations for downstream businesses and introduced one-time simplified declarations for eligible micro and small primary operators. It has also updated the information system used for EUDR submissions. North American demands would go further, changing the treatment of sourcing from countries with established forest controls.<\/p>\n The regulation is scheduled to apply from December 30, 2026, to large and medium-sized operators and to micro and small operators already covered by the EU Timber Regulation. Other micro and small operators have until June 30, 2027.<\/p>\n With the timber-sector deadline approaching, US and Canadian lobbying remains focused on reducing the sourcing information European buyers will require from their suppliers.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The United States and Canada are pressing the European Union for further changes to its deforestation regulation, seeking lighter traceability and documentation requirements for timber from countries with low deforestation risk.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n