By Ana Mano
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -A website containing information about Brazil’s “soy moratorium,” a private agreement enforced by global grain traders to protect the Amazon rainforest from soy-driven deforestation, was taken offline on Tuesday after Brazil’s antitrust authority ordered suspension of the pact.
The soy moratorium has long been hailed as one of the most successful initiatives to protect the Amazon rainforest because it bars soybean traders from buying from farmers who cleared land there after July 2008. But the General Superintendent of antitrust regulator CADE on Monday ruled that it represents a potential breach of Brazilian competition law.
Superintendent Alexandre Barreto de Souza ordered firms to suspend the pact or pay fines after he concluded a preliminary investig