With the stroke of a pen, the EU is rewriting trading practices the world over. It wants firms bringing cocoa, coffee, rubber, soya, palm oil, wood or cattle products into Europe to prove that those commodities did not come from land which was deforested after 2020. An importer breaking the rules can be fined up to 4% of its turnover in the eu. Millions of small farms will need to be geo-located and supply chains redesigned. It is a race against time before the rule kicks in at the end of this year.
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Europe is doing so much harm outside, that their zero emission policy will do more harm than good to Nature
Not just to nature. The compliance costs for farmers in developing countries are often unaffordable. That means they just lose access to the entire EU market, whenever they arbitrarily change their standards.
What's even worse is that oftentimes those farmers were encouraged to spend a ton of money coming into compliance with the previous standards by western experts. Those experts tell the poor farmers that they'll make back a huge return by having access to the EU. When these standards change, those farmers just go broke, because they can't afford to pay the financing on their improvements.
This is called "regime uncertainty" and it's an enormous source of friction in the world.
They should export to Russia instead of EU
Fewer regulations in Russia
Russia's GDP is about the same as Spain's. Russia is a physically large county. But they're relatively poor, only a bit better than Mexico for GDP/capita. They're nowhere near as big of a market as the EU.
If Russia didn't have oil and gas they'd be truly broke.
Russia's GDP: Approximately $2.02 trillion
Ukraine's GDP: $160.5 billion
Your point? Russia isn't fighting just Ukraine. They're fighting Ukraine and the dozens of countries supporting Ukraine. US GDP alone is $25 trillion.
Russia's GDP isn't going to stay $2 trillion either. As Ukraine keeps on blowing up Russian oil and gas facilities that will drop. The Russian economy is very vulnerable to military attack. We just need to let Ukraine destroy it.
My point is Ukraine cannot expect to achieve pre-2022 borders or Crimea
War is hell and they have to be realistic
I'm sure many do, but the EU is richer than Russia and closer to Africa, which makes it a much better potential trade market for African farmers.
I think that they can stop sending it to EU all at once and such is the craving for coffee in EU that we shall see a huge revolt against policymakers in a few hours!
How this mapping of farms all around the world can even be practically implemented! What think tank involved! What are the costs!
Another bad policy and another failure! Sad for Europe.
Importers should not have to pay a fine, they should have immunity
There is certainly a big problem with laws that are sometimes approved, especially when they bring more negative things than positive things.
Intended and unintended consequences are why the fewer laws, the better.
The seen vs the unseen. Econ 101.
Bastiat loved saying this!
Indeed, less is more.
In 1982, DC Circuit ruled against Chevron regarding EPA interpretation in an opinion written by Ruth B Ginsburg. Chevron appealed the decision to Supreme Court, who overruled Ginsburg opinion in 1984, majority opinion written by Justice Stevens.
Who was EPA administrator, 1981 - 83?
Anna Gorsuch
I believe David Browning's suggestion of using satellite images to identify deforestation and then banning farming in these areas is the best way forward.