WDK slams latest EUDR exemptions as threat to European rubber industry

Frankfurt, Germany – Germany's rubber industry association WDK has criticised the European Commission's decision to exempt additional rubber products from the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), warning that the move undermines both the bloc's environmental objectives and European manufacturing.

The European Commission adopted a delegated act 13 July updating the scope of the EUDR ahead of its application at the end of the year.

Under the revised Annex I, the Commission removed retreaded tires, articles of vulcanised rubber, conveyor and transmission belts, and aircraft and motor vehicle seats, cattle hides, skins and leather and soybeans for sowing from the scope of the regulation.

The rubber article exemptions, according to WDK, were justified by the fact that these products often contained only small amounts of natural rubber.

Meanwhile, processors of natural rubber in Europe remain subject to the regulation, while manufacturers of rubber products outside Europe are exempt, said WDK in a 15 July statement.

"The EU Commission is unnecessarily opening the door to the import of comparable finished goods from China and other third countries," said WDK president Michael Klein.

According to Klein, the newly exempted products can now be imported into the European Union "without EUDR verification obligations."

"The Commission is thus creating a regulatory one-way street," he said.

"Those who produce in Europe bear the costs of deforestation-free raw material supply chains. Anyone who imports the finished product from outside Europe should be spared these requirements."

In doing so, Klein continued, "the EU Commission is also contradicting the goals of its own Industrial Accelerator Act, which is to promote 'European content' in vehicles."

"Apparently, the Commission is sacrificing any standards in favour of cheap imports, be it human rights, environmental rights or European industrial production," he added.

WDK said it had already raised these concerns with EU environment commissioner Jessika Roswall and industry commissioner Stéphane Séjourné.

"The European Parliament and the Council must now take corrective action," Klein said.

"If you want the same sustainability standards, you have to apply them regardless of whether a product is manufactured in Europe or imported finished from a third country. Anything else is double standards."