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EUDR
·
April 22, 2025
Written by
Caroline Busse
In this series, we deep-dive into the updates from the new EUDR documents announced by the European Commission in a recent press release. Among the updates and simplifications is the 4th edition of the EUDR Frequently Asked Questions.
The EUDR FAQs are getting longer and longer:
We have read the 80 pages and summarized the key updates for you. The 4th version of the FAQs include mostly minor updates, such as added clarifications, but also a few significant simplifications.
Cattle feed itself does not necessarily fall under the EUDR, due diligence only needs to be performed if such feed is a relevant product at the time of being fed (e.g., soya bean flour).
Besides laws that concern the legal status of the area of production also laws that concern the relevant sectors of agricultural or timber production can be relevant – for example if agricultural or forest-related documents need to be supplied at customs or as part of trade laws of the country of production.
Where packaging material is classified jointly with the carried product, it is considered to be used exclusively as packaging material to support, protect, or carry another product placed or made available on the EU market or exported from it and is thus exempt from the EUDR.
Selling used packaging material to other companies or reusing empty packaging, such a pallets that are transferred from one company to another to be reused for transport, are not subject to EUDR DD If already due diligence. If already used packaging is repaired and sold, it must comply with EUDR only regarding new relevant products used for the repair (e.g. a pallet that is repaired with new wood components).
If a relevant product is rented out, it is not considered to be placed or made available on the market.
According to Art. 1(26) and 141(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 to the Union Customs Code, “items of correspondence” are not subject to customs declarations requirements and a DDS reference number. Similarly, within the EU, such items of correspondence are not placed or made available on the market but serve a communication purpose.
It is to be noted that relevant products contained in items of correspondence (e.g. in an envelope) are, where applicable, subject to customs declaration requirements and the presentation of a DDS reference number.
A company is only considered an operator placing a new product on the market if the HS Code change is reflected in Annex I.
For example, EU-based company A imports unroasted coffee (HS Code 0901 11), which falls under HS Code 0901. EU-based company B roasts the coffee beans (HS Code 0901 21), which remains under HS Code 0901 in Annex I. Company A would be considered an operator, while company B would be classified as a trader as the HS code remains the same in Annex I of the EUDR.
The first operator established in the Union is considered the upstream operator.
Downstream operators place on the market or export relevant products where all the components or ingredients have previously been subject to due diligence under EUDR within a DDS.
For example, if company A, based in the EU, imports cocoa butter (HS code 1804, included in Annex I), and company B, also based in the EU, uses that cocoa butter to produce chocolate (HS code 1806, included in Annex I) and places it on the EU market, both company A and B would be considered operators. Company A would be considered the “upstream operator”, whereas company B would be a “downstream operator”.
Ascertain that due diligence was exercised upstream by collecting the reference numbers and verification numbers of DDS submitted upstream and verifying the validity of the reference numbers.
Ascertaining that due diligence was properly carried out does NOT imply having to systematically check every single DDS submitted by upstream suppliers.
Non-EU-based operators will only have access to the Information System if they have a valid EORI number issued by an EU Member State or by the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland (XI).
There is no legal obligation for an SME trader or an SME downstream operator to submit DDS or to ascertain that due diligence was exercised upstream; non-SME downstream companies cannot require SMEs to submit a DDS.
Company groups have the possibility to mandate one of their members as an authorised representative to submit due diligence statements on behalf of all members of the group. An authorised representative can use a single account to submit and manage DDS on behalf of all entities it represents. The authorised representative must be established in the Union.
While operators sourcing commodities entirely from areas classified as low risk will be subject to simplified due diligence obligations (such as not being required to assess and mitigate risks (Art. 10 and 11 EUDR) unless the operator obtains information, including substantiated concerns, that would point to a risk), they will STILL need to collect information in line with Art. 9 AND assess the complexity of the supply chain and the risk of circumvention and the risk of mixing the product with products of unknown origin or origin of standard or high-risk countries.
Large companies can now reuse existing due diligence statements for reimported goods that were previously placed on the EU market.
Companies are now allowed to submit due diligence statements annually instead of for every shipment/batch placed on the EU market.
It is possible to include multiple DDS reference numbers in one customs declaration.
The Commission's methodology for the country benchmarking relies on quantitative criteria based on scientific evidence and internationally recognized latest available data, primarily from the Global Forest Resources Assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Withdrawal or amendment of a DDS will not be possible from the time when the operator or trader was notified about the intention to carry out a check on the DDS and for the period of the check.
A due diligence statement (DDS) is composed of various data fields. The product related data is grouped together under the products which are identified by HS codes.
A single DDS can contain up to 200 lines of relevant products (orange box). Each product has the following limitations:
The ‘Producer Name’ and the ‘Production Place Description’ are optional fields where the user can enter information for internal reference. As an additional rule, a single DDS can contain 10.000 ‘Production Place’ in total. Each DDS can reference up to 2.000 other DDS.
The maximum 25 MB per DDS allows for more than 1 million geolocation points, or polygon vertexes in total. There are multiple ways to decrease the file size:
The product quantity must be expressed in kilograms of net mass and, where applicable, in the supplementary unit set out in Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No. 2658/87. Supplementary units are also mandatory where they are defined consistently for all possible subheadings under the Harmonised System code referred.
When submitting a DDS for ‘export’ there is no need to enter the destination country. Therefore, there is no need to submit separate DDS in case of multiple destination countries.
Importers or exporters of the product must include the associated DDS reference numbers on the customs declaration.
Regarding other shipment documents, including intra-EU transport, there is no specific provision to include DDS reference numbers.
Within the Information System, a single economic operator account can be used to perform different functions, including submitting data as an operator, trader, or authorized representative.
Earth observation data such as from the Copernicus program and forest maps are a key source of information for assessing the deforestation risk of commodities and products.
The Global Forest Cover 2020 map is not intended as the definitive source of information for compliance. It is one of many possible sources, e.g. global, regional, or national maps.
It cannot be assumed that a product is compliant or that it will not be checked if its geolocation falls outside an area considered forest on the map. Reasons for this could be other risk factors not covered by the map, legislative risks, or limitations in the accuracy and spatial granularity of the map.
Random checks will also consider plots of land that do not correspond to forest in the map.
Sourcing a commodity originating from land marked as forest in the Global Forest Cover 2020 map does not automatically indicate non-compliance. This may however indicate a risk of deforestation. In such cases, it is suggested to undertake further investigation and additional steps with other sources of information.
Errors are inherent to any spatial map. Overall accuracies of global spatial products are generally around 85%. National maps may reach 90% overall accuracy. None of such global or national maps can be considered as the one ‘reference map’ for DD due to their unknown accuracy at local scale.
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Caroline is an experienced data scientist with a management degree from TU Munich and a degree in earth observation from the University of Würzburg, which is co-chaired by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). She has worked as a data scientist in the areas of nature conservation and land use change monitoring at WWF, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and at tech companies such as Celonis and Deloitte.
