EU Commission Publishes Updated Infographics on EUDR Roles and Responsibilities

On March 26, the EU Commission published the 3rd edition of its EUDR Supply Chain Infographics, outlining key roles and responsibilities for companies in beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber soy and wood supply chains.

This document clarifies the key due diligence obligations for each relevant role under EUDR, including the upstream primary operator, the upstream micro or small primary operator, the first non-SME downstream operator or trader, the first SME downstream operator or trader, and any subsequent SME or non-SME downstream operators or traders.

A key element of the simplified text was the removal of due diligence obligations for downstream operators and traders. Furthermore, during trilogue negotiations it was established that only the first downstream operator would be required to collect and keep the due diligence reference number or declaration identifier, and would not bear any obligation to communicate that reference number any further downstream.

The due diligence obligations by company role are summarized as follows:

Upstream primary operator

The upstream primary operator, or the first operator placing a good on the EU market or exporting a good from the EU for the first time, bears full due diligence obligations under the law. They must exercise all due diligence obligations established under Article 4(1) and submit a due diligence statement (DDS) for relevant goods in the EU Traces system per Article 4(2). Furthermore, upstream primary operators bear responsibility for non-compliance, and must remediate if issues of non-compliance are identified. They must also communicate the DDS reference number - which they receive from the EU Traces system upon submitting a DDS to the system - to downstream operators or traders in their supply chain. Finally, the primary operator also bears responsibility to publicly report on the EUDR due diligence via annual report, the first of which must be published one year after the Regulation enters into force.

All EUDR-related data and records must be retained for 5 years.

Upstream micro or small primary operator

Upstream micro or small primary operator must exercise due diligence obligations, but instead of submitting a due diligence statement to the EU Traces system they must only submit a one-time simplified declaration. The are still obligated to communicate reference numbers downstream, but there is no annual reporting requirement. Micro or small primary operators also have no mandatory record keeping requirement under the law.

First downstream operator or trader (non-SME)

The first non-SME downstream operator or trader has no due diligence obligations under the simplified EUDR text. They must register their business in EU Traces, but they do not need to submit any due diligence statements for downstream products, nor do they have to communicate due diligence reference numbers further downstream. They are, however, required to collect and keep due diligence reference numbers provided to them by the upstream primary operator and retain them in their own systems for the mandatory EUDR data retention period of 5 years. Again, these reference numbers do not need to be re-submitted to Traces at any point.

First SME downstream operator or trader

SME downstream operators and traders bear no due diligence obligations, do not need to submit due diligence statements, and do not need to communicate due diligence reference numbers downstream. Their only obligation is to retain the due diligence reference numbers provided to them by the first upstream operator in their own systems for the mandatory EUDR data retention period of 5 years.

Subsequent downstream operators and traders (SME and non-SME)

Neither of these roles have any due diligence obligations, obligations to submit due diligence statements, or obligations to pass due diligence reference numbers further downstream. Only non-SME downstream operators and traders must register their business in EU Traces (once), and both SME and non-SME downstream operators must maintain a record in their own systems of the names and addresses of the companies to whom they have sold relevant EUDR products. These records do not need to be submitted to Traces in any capacity or publicly disclosed.

The full infographic from the EU Commission can be found here.

To learn more about how Sourcemap can support your business with EUDR compliance, or to speak with one our policy experts, reach out today.