The European Union will delay launching its anti-deforestation law for a second time, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said on Tuesday, postponing the ban on imports of commodities such as palm oil linked to forest destruction for another year, informed Reuters.
Brussels had already delayed the law by a year, but that had not quelled opposition from industry and trade partners such as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States, who say complying with the rules would be costly and hurt their exports to Europe.
Roswall told reporters the postponement was necessary to address concerns about the readiness of information-technology systems needed to support the law. The delay was not linked to U.S. concerns about the policy, she said.
"We have concern regarding the IT system, given the amount of information that we put into the system...That will...also give us time to look at the different risks," she said.
The world-first policy aims to end the 10% of global deforestation fuelled by EU consumption of imported goods, but is a politically contested part of Europe's green agenda.
