Regulation 1115 with environmentalist limits that the bloc hopes to include in the document would prevent the development of fertile and extensive Guaraní forest regions in the northern Chaco, stated the Union of Production Guilds (UGP), quoted by the newspaper.
The clauses of the document, which regulate the sale of raw materials and products related to deforestation and forest degradation, clash with the local law on the subject, despite the fact that the latter complies with the regulatory forest reserve based on environmental impact studies, according to the UGP.
Paraguay’s rejection of EU regulation 1115/2023 is generally based on its contradiction with Paraguayan forestry legislation on the change of use of forest land, according to the PMU’s analysis.
Paraguayan law allows for the alternation of these lands for agricultural activities and other uses, such as urbanization, subject to formalities with the National Forestry Institute and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
On the contrary, the EU law establishes the change in land use as deforestation, which it considers illegal, a dilemma that clashes with the Paraguayan strategy, says the head of the UGP, engineer Héctor Cristaldo.
¨With the EU regulation,” stressed the expert, “the Paraguayan Chaco will not be able to increase its livestock or agricultural production, as allowed by our law.
Paraguayan businessmen meeting on Friday in this capital reacted with pessimism to these and other EU positions that would hinder the signing of the pending agreement between the two blocs.
The meeting of the Paraguayan Chamber of Exporters and Traders of Grains and Oilseeds and the UGP agreed that there is a high degree of tension to subscribe said association consensus between the two bodies, postponed since 2019.
Guarani traders and producers, whose government holds the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur, warned that the conditions of the entity of the Old Continent are difficult to apply, as it intends to stop imports of products without adapting to its environmental protection conditions.
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