The new law requires that companies root out labor and human rights violations from their supply chains or risk being held accountable in EU courts. These commodities can be tainted by child labor, forced displacement of rural communities, and killings of environmental defenders. The EU imports billions of euros worth of timber and agricultural commodities annually from around the world. These include laws on land-use rights, labor rights, human rights protected under international law, and the right to free, prior, and informed consent as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and anti-corruption laws. The regulation also requires companies to ensure these commodities are produced in conditions that comply with “relevant laws” in their country of origin. The law requires companies to trace the commodities back to where they were produced. Several derived products are covered, too, such as chocolate and leather. The European Union Deforestation-Free Products Regulation puts the onus on companies registered in EU member states to ensure seven agricultural commodities – cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soy, and wood – that they import or export have not been produced on land deforested after December 31, 2020. Today, the European Union adopted an important new law requiring EU-based companies to ensure their imports and exports are “deforestation-free” and not driving human rights abuses. © 2023 Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The Amazon River in the Amazon rainforest, in Leticia, Colombia, April 1, 2023.
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