Printed products that are imported into the EU where the pulp or paper used is implicated in deforestation are being banned for the first time. This closes a loophole in the EU Timber Regulation which banned direct import of timber and pulp from illegally logged sources, but allowed products made from such forests, including books and other printed items, to pass.
Intergraf, the European conglomeration of print associations (including the BPIF), led the lobbying to extend the regulation and calls the expansion “ a momentous agreement”. Printed products are now covered by the due diligence rules and should be subject to the same processes that paper and pulp imported into the EU have to undergo. This will place the onus on publishers to ensure that the production facilities they use comply. In practice the step is a further barrier to printing in low cost and emerging markets where regulation is not as tough as in European markets.
Currently Intergraf estimates that printed products worth millions of euros are imported each year and now subject to the regulation. Intergraf president Ulrich Stetter says: “Thanks to Intergraf’s advocacy, the scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation now covers printed products, which was one of the few wood based products not already covered by due diligence requirements. EU legislators have reached an ambitious agreement that will protect forests globally.”
Its secretary general Beatrice Klose adds: “European consumers need to trust that the books or printed items they buy on the European market do not contribute to global deforestation. The inclusion of printed products in the scope of the Deforestation Regulation secures this.”
The loophole has been a bone of contention almost from the day that the EUTR was introduced in 2013. Back in 2015, with the UK still a member of the EU, the Confederation of Paper Industries urged extension of the Regulation to cover printed matter. “While this extension has never been sensible, the quickly growing imports of printers materials from potentially problematic areas means the loophole should be closed as quickly as possible.”
At the time, China, Vitenam and Thailand were identified as the major countries engaging in illegal logging where the results might end up in print work imported into Europe.
