Push for post-Brexit trade deals may threaten UK pledges on deforestation
The UK government may be undermining its commitments to end deforestation overseas because of conflicts over trade policy, the Guardian has learned.
A war of words is raging within the government over deforestation and trade, with green campaigners warning that a proposed policy could have dire consequences for efforts to stop illegal logging.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, is believed to want to relax tariffs for goods including palm oil from Malaysia, a country of top concern over deforestation. The relaxation would be part of a broader push for trade deals with developing countries that the government is pursuing in the wake of Brexit.
The UK wants to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which includes Malaysia, by dropping generic trade tariffs. Negotiations began under the former trade secretary Liz Truss, who is running as a Tory leadership candidate.
However, the removal of tariffs without any green strings attached would undercut the UK’s parallel efforts to end illegal deforestation overseas, one of the centrepieces of the deal that ministers forged at the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow last year.
Sam Lawson, the director of the UK campaign group Earthsight, who has spent many years investigating deforestation for palm oil in Malaysia, said: “This proposal to slash tariffs on Malaysian palm oil without any conditions regarding the devastating deforestation those imports are known to cause is utter madness. Instead of addressing the cost of living crisis, this government is using it as a hollow excuse for ditching its own climate goals in a craven effort to get another trade agreement under its belt.”
The UK’s Environment Act, which was
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