'India should prepare its exporters to deal with compliance norms of EU's deforestation regulation'
compliance requirements of the European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) as it would hit agri exports, a report said on Tuesday. This regulation will hit India's agricultural exports worth USD 1.3 billion to the EU starting December 2024, think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said. «Indian exports may take a bigger hit than exports from other competing countries to the EU because of India's higher deforestation rate,» the report said, adding India's exports will also be affected by the complex compliance requirements of the EUDR and the EU's Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR).
Even if the exporter is certain that a product is not grown on the deforested land, he/she still has to follow all elaborate compliance requirements, GTRI Co-founder Ajay Srivastava said. He said this is so different from quality standards where quality of the final product alone matters. «The EU just wants to raise the cost of imports to help local producers through a complex compliance mechanism,» he added.
The key products which would be affected due to this regulation include coffee, leather hides, skin, preparations, oil cake, paper, paperboard, and wood furniture. The European Union Deforestation-Free Products Regulation, also known as EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was adopted by the European Union Council, on May 16, 2023. The regulation requires firms to ensure that the product exported to the EU has been grown on land which has not been deforested after December 31, 2020.
«The regulation is not WTO (World Trade Organization) compatible and a non-tariff barrier,» the report said. The new rules will apply to large firms with effect from December 2024 and small firms from June 2025. The regulation prescribes fines up
. Read more on economictimes.indiatimes.com
