Due diligence, import deforestation free goods and blockchain
The EU Regulation 2023/1115 on the making available on the Union market and the export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010” has the following goals:
- minimising the Union’s contribution to deforestation and forest degradation worldwide, and thereby contributing to a reduction in global deforestation;
- reducing the Union’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global biodiversity loss
The due diligence statement requires companies to collect information, identify risks and mitigate them, organise and keep the information and evidence relating to each relevant product for a period of five years from the date of placing, making available or exporting from the EU market.
This information can covers: – geolocation of all plots of land where the relevant commodities contained in relevant products were produced; -the date or time range of production; – contact details of suppliers or clients; – “adequately conclusive and verifiable information”
The blockchain technology solutions can be an approach adopted by the economic operator and promoted by the customs organizations. It could be, from the economic operator side, a peculiarity to be audited for the AEO.
It is interesting to repeat that the relevant commodities are:
Cattle : 0102 21, 0102 29 Live cattle; ex 0201 Meat of cattle, fresh or chilled; ex 0202 Meat of cattle, frozen; ex 0206 10 Edible offal of cattle, fresh or chilled; ex 0206 22 Edible cattle livers, frozen; ex 0206 29 Edible cattle offal (excluding tongues and livers), frozen; ex 1602 50 Other prepared or preserved meat, meat offal, blood, of cattle; ex 4101 Raw hides and skins of cattle (fresh, or salted, dried, limed, pickled or otherwise preserved, but not tanned, parchment-dressed or further prepared), whether or not dehaired or split; ex 4104 Tanned or crust hides and skins of cattle, without hair on, whether or not split, but not further prepared; ex 4107 Leather of cattle, further prepared after tanning or crusting, including parchment dressed leather, without hair on, whether or not split, other than leather of heading 4114
Cocoa: 1801 Cocoa beans, whole or broken, raw or roasted; 1802 Cocoa shells, husks, skins and other cocoa waste; 1803 Cocoa paste, whether or not defatted; 1804 Cocoa butter, fat and oil; 1805 Cocoa powder, not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter; 1806 Chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa;
Palm oil: 120710 Palm nuts and kernels; 1511 Palm oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified; 151321 Crude palm kernel and babassu oil and fractions thereof, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified; 151329 Palm kernel and babassu oil and their fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified (excluding crude oil); 230660 Oilcake and other solid residues of palm nuts or kernels, whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of palm nut or kernel fats or oils; ex 290545 Glycerol, with a purity of 95 % or more (calculated on the weight of the dry product) 291570 Palmitic acid, stearic acid, their salts and esters; 291590 Saturated acyclic monocarboxylic acids, their anhydrides, halides, peroxides and peroxyacids; their halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated or nitrosated derivatives (excluding formic acid, acetic acid, mono-, di- or trichloroacetic acids, propionic acid, butanoic acids, pentanoic acids, palmitic acid, stearic acid, their salts and esters, and acetic anhydride) 3823 11 Stearic acid, industrial; 382312 Oleic acid, industrial 382319 Industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids; acid oils from refining (excluding stearic acid, oleic acid and tall oil fatty acids); 382370 Industrial fatty alcohols.
Rubber: 4001 Natural rubber, balata, gutta-percha, guayule, chicle and similar natural gums, in primary forms or in plates, sheets or strip; ex 4005 Compounded rubber, unvulcanised, in primary forms or in plates, sheets or strip; ex 4006 Unvulcanised rubber in other forms (e.g. rods, tubes and profile shapes) and articles (e.g. discs and rings); ex 4007 Vulcanised rubber thread and cord; ex 4008 Plates, sheets, strips, rods and profile shapes, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber; ex 4010 Conveyer or transmission belts or belting, of vulcanised rubber; ex 4011 New pneumatic tyres, of rubber; ex 4012 Retreaded or used pneumatic tyres of rubber; solid or cushion tyres, tyre treads and tyre flaps, of rubber; ex 4013 Inner tubes, of rubber; ex 4015 Articles of apparel and clothing accessories (including gloves, mittens and mitts), for all purposes, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber ;ex 4016 Other articles of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber, not elsewhere specified in chapter 40; ex 4017 Hard rubber (e.g. ebonite) in all forms including waste and scrap; articles of hard rubber
Soya: 1201 Soya beans, whether or not broken; 120810 Soya bean flour and meal; 1507 Soya-bean oil and its fractions, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified; 2304 Oilcake and other solid residues, whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of soya-bean oil;
Wood: 4401 Fuel wood, in logs, in billets, in twigs, in faggots or in similar forms; wood in chips or particles; sawdust and wood waste and scrap, whether or not agglomerated in logs, briquettes, pellets or similar forms 4402 Wood charcoal (including shell or nut charcoal), whether or not agglomerated 4403 Wood in the rough, whether or not stripped of bark or sapwood, or roughly squared 4404 Hoopwood; split poles; piles, pickets and stakes of wood, pointed but not sawn lengthwise; wooden sticks, roughly trimmed but not turned, bent or otherwise worked, suitable for the manufacture of walking sticks, umbrellas, tool handles or the like; chipwood and the like 4405 Wood wool; wood flour 4406 Railway or tramway sleepers (cross-ties) of wood 4407 Wood sawn or chipped lengthwise, sliced or peeled, whether or not planed, sanded or end-jointed, of a thickness exceeding 6 mm 4408 Sheets for veneering (including those obtained by slicing laminated wood), for plywood or for other similar laminated wood and other wood, sawn lengthwise, sliced or peeled, whether or not planed, sanded, spliced or end-jointed, of a thickness not exceeding 6 mm 4409 Wood (including strips and friezes for parquet flooring, not assembled) continuously shaped (tongued, grooved, rebated, chamfered, V-jointed, beaded, moulded, rounded or the like) along any of its edges, ends or faces, whether or not planed, sanded or end-jointed 4410 Particle board, oriented strand board (OSB) and similar board (for example, waferboard) of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not agglomerated with resins or other organic binding substances 4411 Fibreboard of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not bonded with resins or other organic substances.