The EU is to clamp down on beef and soya imports from countries which are linked to deforestation, such as Brazil.

A new proposal from Brussels is aimed at ensuring that certain products, namely coffee, cocoa, palm oil, soya, beef and wood, which are placed on the EU market or exported from the EU, have not caused deforestation or forest degradation during their production. The proposal would also set up a benchmarking system, which assigns countries a level of risk related to deforestation (low, standard or high).

This would mean EU member states could carry out “enhanced monitoring” of products coming from countries deemed to have a high risk of deforestation.