In a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, Mississippi’s congressional delegation has sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with concerns that new regulations implemented by the European Union will harm the state’s forestry industry. 

The delegation wrote that the E.U. regulations “introduce substantial uncertainty” for the forestry industry and risk “further depressing already strained log and wood-product markets, harming rural communities that depend on healthy, functioning timber economies.”

While the delegation’s letter primarily focused on the state’s $15-billion a year forestry industry, the regulations apply to other agricultural products, such as cattle and soybeans. 

In 2023, the E.U. revised its timber supply chain regulations to curb deforestation, clearing trees and converting forest land to another use, such as agriculture. The new regulations, which will start to be implemented on Dec. 30, require companies importing wood and certain agricultural products to certify that their products were not produced on recently deforested land.

The delegation said this is an infringement on “American private property rights.”

Casey Anderson, executive director of the Mississippi Forestry Association, says that as a consequence of the new regulations, some producers are being asked to sign contracts by traders saying that they will not convert the land. Landowners are pushing back at their ability to decide how best to use the land they own.

“The E.U. is trying to dictate how we do things in the U.S.,” said Anderson. 

In a social media post, Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson wrote, “We can never allow foreign interests and globalists to dictate the use of our land and natural resources here in Mississippi.”

Anderson points out that most producers in the U.S. practice sustainable forestry. And in the delegation’s letter, they highlighted that the E.U. considers the U.S. to have “negligible or insignificant levels of deforestation.” 

Mississippi and much of the South’s forestry industry has struggled in recent decades and is facing low prices. 

“It can really do a lot of harm if it goes through,” said Anderson of the new regulations.