The countries, many of them developing nations, that make up a big share of the European Union’s imports are about up to here with Brussels dictating how they run their industries. It’s all well and good for Europe to have run through their own forests and natural resources – or decided to hoard what’s left of the same. They are warning the Europeans now not to be bringing their Green initiatives to the contract table when it’s time to order some coffee or aluminum.

It’s a classic sort of “You’re not the boss of us” David vs Goliath case. Only there’s a bunch of Davids.

The EU’s green ambitions are, for its trading partners, turning into a case of the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

Developing nations, especially, worry that Brussels is throwing up trade barriers in its pursuit of climate neutrality and sustainable food production. To them, it looks like all the EU can export is rules that will hold back their own economic progress.

…One third-country diplomat said it was easy for the EU to take a stand on deforestation in the developing world, having already deforested its own land in the past.

That’s a pretty legit point.

Where environmental activists and Green weenies see a victory…

Many popular grocery store items, from beef to coffee, have a dark side. They’re often grown on land where forests were cut down.

That means that when you shop, you might be inadvertently contributing to the ongoing destruction of nature. And much of it is happening in the Amazon rainforest and Congo Basin — two of the most important ecosystems on Earth.

…Some environmental advocates argue that the law doesn’t go far enough and, at worst, will just encourage companies to reroute their dirty products elsewhere. But what’s clear is that it sends a loud signal that markets are changing: Products that drive forest loss are no longer acceptable, and voluntary corporate pledges to eliminate deforestation are no longer enough.

“This law indicates that the market for products linked to environmental devastation is quickly closing,” said Hannah Mowat, a campaigns coordinator at the European environmental advocacy organization Fern. “It’s the beginning of the new market norms.”

…the people who grow those commodities and mine those minerals have a problem with usurping their national sovereignty.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has signaled European Union-Indonesia relationships to be at risk with the new Deforestation Regulation, warning that the EU should not attempt to dictate its sustainability standards to ASEAN if it wants to maintain its relationship with Indonesia going forward.

Addressing the special EU-ASEAN summit meeting in Brussels on Dec.15, the President asserted, “There must be no coercion, no more parties who always dictate and assume that my standards are better than yours.”

In our view the regulation on the deforestation label, which will be enforced on palm oil and its derivatives and several other farm commodities in 2023, confirms the EU is finally turning its back on any trade policy that considers itself to be fair and that the bloc simply cannot make its trade policy and its broader external goals coherent.

Indonesia’s neighbor joined in the pile-on as well. They’re threatening to cut-off sales of palm oil, among other products. What does palm oil go into?

Damn near everything.

Malaysia said on Thursday it could stop exporting palm oil to the European Union in response to a new EU law aimed at protecting forests by strictly regulating sale of the product.

…”If we need to engage experts from overseas to counter whatever move by EU, we have to do it,” Fadillah told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on Thursday.

“Or the option could be we just stop exports to Europe, just focus on other countries if they (the EU) are giving us all a difficult time to export to them.“

To their credit, these countries are learning quickly how the game is played. Instead of groveling, they know how to hit the EU where it hurts. Not economically – in their wokeness quotient. Call them “imperial colonizers” and watch them squirm.

…One diplomat from a third country said Brussels is mishandling the power of the EU’s single market instead of respecting the sovereignty of its trading partners.

“We see a regulatory imperialism by the EU whereby Brussels sees itself as an exporter of rules to third countries — as the legislators of the world,” said Philippe De Baere, managing partner at law firm Van Bael & Bellis.

It’s also not as if African, Asian, and South American exporters can’t see what a complete muddle the EU is making of agriculture and industry in their own backyard. For crying out loud, these people can barely keep the lights on and now they’re having trouble growing their own potatoes. Why? Not because of any potato blight or little worms. It’s all self-imposed misery with this group.

In a press release issued today, the North Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) organization says lower yields per hectare (-6,3%) resulted in an overall production decline for its member countries (-5,3% or 1,2 million tonnes) this year, despite a rise of 2,9% in harvested area.

…NEPG underscores the fact that potato growers in its member countries face multiple risks and these risks seem to increase each season. Apart from uncertain and fluctuating production acreage and free-buy prices, farmers now have to include a series of “new” risks to manage.

Risks are now also linked to climate change, geopolitical (i.e. the war in Ukraine) and health events (i.e. the Covid 19 pandemic), access to water, and tighter EU regulations regarding fertilizer (mainly nitrogen, be it farm sourced or mineral) and pesticide use.

The malevolent clowns running this country aren’t helping matters, either.

I don't know if I've ever seen a picture that better encapsulates woke "activism":

A wealthy progressive standing in-front of a hut in an African village telling local farmers they should be focused on climate change. pic.twitter.com/pdnsRdGkTO

— Will Hild (@WillHild) January 26, 2023

They don’t see the hypocrisy in any of it. And the tell is right here.

…”In Brussels, everyone looks at these measures separately,” said another diplomat from a third country. “But who looks at it together and thinks about what it means to us? CBAM, deforestation, the Farm to Fork strategy. These are all unilateral measures which are making things harder for our exporters.”

European officials stress, however, that Brussels is not inflicting its Green Deal on the rest of the world.

But Brussels is also being pushed by NGOs to lead by example. “Europe is one of the major contributors to the current crises related to climate, biodiversity, energy and human rights violations around the world. Therefore we consider it the responsibility of the European Union and other countries in the Global North to urgently start tackling these crises through lawmaking,” said Jill McArdle from the NGO Friends of the Earth.

Being “pushed by NGOs” – non-governmental organizations with specific, radical agendas who want their ideologies imposed as law upon sovereign nations through the auspices of the E.U.’s economic power. Quite possibly crippling those nations’ full economic development and stymying their growth potential, In effect, these excessive, externally imposed environmental constraints are keeping them vassal states.

Oh.

Ah.

Got it.