The government has rejected recommendations to ban UK businesses from trading in products linked to deforestation, regardless of whether their production was legal.

The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) had said UK businesses should be banned from trading in commodities linked to UN-defined deforestation in all cases, regardless of whether the deforestation was illegal or permitted by local laws.

It previously found that the consumption of commodities such as soy, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather by domestic consumers is unsustainable and leading to rampant deforestation across the globe.

A zero-deforestation approach would encourage consistency in trading such commodities across UK and European markets.

But in its response to the EAC’s report, the government said: “The only way to achieve zero global deforestation in supply chains is to work in partnership with producer countries – and that working in partnership requires us to uphold and respect national laws.”

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