Tyres Europe, formerly ETRMA, has slammed a proposal by the European Commission to "simplify" the European deforestation regulation (EUDR), saying it risks setting back implementation efforts and distorting competition in the tire sector.

Tyres Europe noted that the industry has invested heavily over the recent years to comply with the regulation as adopted. The investments, it said, included developing "tailored IT systems, restructuring supply chains, and preparing to file due diligence statements (DDS) for natural rubber (NR) and tires, whether EU-made or imported".

The proposed simplification, "fundamentally alters the core implementation logic, undermining the whole preparatory work and creating further legal and compliance uncertainties", said Tyres Europe.

The 'simplification' involves the new "first placer" approach: NR importers, not tire manufacturers would become responsible for submitting DDSs.

According to Tyres Europe, each tire contains NR from multiple batches and sources, meaning that each single product could be associated with "hundreds or even thousands of DDS reference numbers". These, it explained, will then have to be stored, tracked and retransmitted to/by distributors, retailers, and fleets mostly SMEs with no systems to handle such data volumes. "What is presented as simplification is, in reality, a last minute different solution that simply cannot work with the reality of the tire market in the EU", said Adam McCarthy, Tyres Europe.