France, Sept. 24 -- EU environmental chiefs have announced another one-year delay to plans to tighten up rules on importing products such as soy, beef and cocoa that have been linked to forest destruction.

The postponement cameas negotiators from the 27-nation bloc finalised a multi-billion euro trade agreement with Indonesia.

The original 2024 launch of the law was delayed by a year after complaints from industries and trade partners including Brazil, Indonesia and the United States under the former presidnt Joe Biden.

Environment Commissioner JessicaRoswalltold reporters in Brussels that it was necessary to put off the implementation of the law in order to address concerns about the large amounts of data needed to enterin the IT syst...