SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) | Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoCI)
Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached a provisional political agreement to postpone and simplify the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which was originally adopted in 2023. The regulation aims to fight climate change and biodiversity loss by ensuring products sold in the EU are not sourced from deforested land, targeting commodities like cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, soya, wood, rubber, and cattle products.
Key Simplification and Postponement Measures:
One-Year Postponement: All businesses will receive one additional year to comply with the new rules to guarantee a smooth transition.
Large operators and traders must now apply the regulation from 30 December 2026.
Small and micro operators will have until 30 June 2027.
Simplified Due Diligence: The responsibility for submitting a due diligence statement will fall to the businesses that are first to place a relevant product on the EU market (the operator).
Micro-Operator Relief: The agreement significantly reduces obligations for micro and small primary operators, who will now only have to submit a one-off simplified declaration.
Exclusions: Printed products have been excluded from the scope of the regulation.
Implementation Review: The Commission must present a report by 30 April 2026 to assess the lawβs impact and administrative burden, particularly for micro and small operators.
Due Diligence in the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is the process that businesses placing certain goods on the EU market must follow to verify and prove that those goods were not sourced from land that has been subject to deforestation or forest degradation after a specific cut-off date. This process typically involves collecting geographic coordinates and verifiable data on the productβs origin.
Policy Relevance
This political agreement is of critical international and trade relevance, as the EUβs consumption is responsible for around 10% of global deforestation, with palm oil and soya accounting for over two-thirds of this impact. For major commodity exporters, including India (which exports coffee, spices, and potentially wood products), the delay provides valuable time to upgrade supply chain traceability systems. The simplification of due diligence rules and the exclusion of printed products will ease compliance burdens but require immediate focus from Indian exporters to align their certification and traceability systems by the new December 2026 deadline.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How will the Ministry of Commerce and the relevant commodity boards leverage the one-year postponement to ensure that Indian exporters have compliant traceability systems in place by December 2026?
Follow the full news here: Deforestation law: deal with Council to postpone and simplify measures