🌍 What the New Draft Annex Means for EUDR Product Scope

The European Commission’s draft Annex proposes amendments to Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, commonly known as the EU Deforestation Regulation, by refining the list of relevant commodities and relevant products.

For businesses placing products on the EU market or exporting from the EU, these changes matter because Annex I defines which goods fall within the scope of EUDR due diligence obligations. The draft does not rewrite the entire regulation. Instead, it clarifies product coverage, narrows certain categories, removes some items, and adds new product lines that may now require closer compliance review.

In simple terms: companies must reassess whether their products are in scope, partially in scope, or excluded under the revised Annex.

🧭 Why This Annex Matters

The EUDR applies to certain commodities and products linked to deforestation and forest degradation risks. The Annex is essential because it connects legal obligations to practical trade classifications, especially Combined Nomenclature and HS codes.

The draft Annex introduces several important changes:

🐄 Cattle: Scope Clarified for Live Animals and Certain Products

The draft Annex clarifies that the cattle commodity applies only to cattle of the genus Bos and its sub-genera, including Bos, Bibos, Novibos, and Poephagus, under HS subheadings 0102 21 and 0102 29.

It also clarifies that the regulation does not apply to buffalo, bison, or other live bovine animals outside that scope.

Key Product Changes for Cattle

✅ “0102 21, 0102 29 Live cattle” is replaced with “ex 0102 Live cattle.”
✅ Frozen cattle tongues are added under ex 0206 21 00.
❌ Certain cattle hide and leather entries are deleted.

Business Impact

Companies dealing with cattle, meat products, offal, or related customs codes should review whether the revised wording changes the classification of their products. The deletion of certain hide and leather entries may also affect product-mapping exercises already completed under previous Annex I interpretations.

☕ Coffee: Extracts, Essences, and Concentrates Added

The draft Annex adds a new coffee-related product entry:

This is important for companies in the food, beverage, ingredients, flavoring, and instant coffee sectors.

Business Impact

Coffee compliance may no longer be limited to raw, roasted, decaffeinated coffee, husks, skins, and substitutes. Businesses handling coffee extracts or concentrates should assess whether these products require EUDR due diligence, traceability, supplier documentation, and risk assessment.

🌴 Oil Palm: A Major Expansion into Derivatives and Chemicals

One of the most significant parts of the draft Annex concerns oil palm.

The Annex clarifies that the regulation applies to oil palm of Elaeis spp., including Elaeis guineensis. It does not apply to babassu oil from Attalea spp. or other vegetable oils from other palm tree species.

At the same time, many product entries are amended to use “ex” codes, meaning that only the portion of the customs heading linked to oil palm is covered.

New or Clarified Oil Palm Product Areas

The draft includes or clarifies coverage for:

Business Impact

This is especially relevant for industries such as:

🧴 Cosmetics and personal care
🧼 Soap and detergents
🧪 Chemicals and oleochemicals
🍫 Food ingredients
🏭 Industrial manufacturing
📦 Packaging and processing inputs

Companies should not only check whether a product contains palm oil. They may also need to determine whether ingredients, derivatives, alcohols, acids, esters, soaps, or chemical preparations were made using oil palm.

That means supplier declarations, bill of materials reviews, and chemical-origin traceability may become more important.

🧤 Rubber: Natural Rubber Scope Narrowed and Used Products Excluded

The draft Annex clarifies that the rubber commodity applies to rubber from Hevea brasiliensis. It does not apply to balata, gutta-percha, guayule, chicle, similar natural gums produced from other species, or synthetic rubber products.

Key Rubber Product Changes

Business Impact

Rubber product manufacturers and importers should carefully distinguish between:

✅ Natural rubber from Hevea brasiliensis
❌ Synthetic rubber
❌ Other natural gums
❌ Used or second-hand rubber products where excluded

This can reduce unnecessary compliance burden for products outside scope, but it also requires accurate material-origin documentation.

🪵 Wood: Bamboo, Rattan, Used Goods, and Packaging Clarifications

The draft Annex states that the regulation does not apply to bamboo, rattan, and other materials of a woody nature. It also clarifies that listed wood products are not covered to the extent they are made from those excluded materials.

This is particularly important for companies selling furniture, household goods, decorative products, kitchenware, and packaging.

Major Wood-Related Clarifications

The Annex adds exclusions across many wood product categories, including:

Business Impact

Businesses should update product classification workflows to distinguish between:

🌲 Wood products in scope.
🎍 Bamboo or rattan products out of scope.
📦 Packaging used only to carry another product.
♻️ Waste, recovered, or second-hand products.
🪑 New wooden furniture versus used wooden furniture.

This distinction is crucial because many companies may currently classify products broadly under wood-related customs codes without checking the new exclusions.

📄 Pulp and Paper: More Detailed Exclusions

The draft Annex replaces the previous pulp and paper wording with more detailed entries for:

It also introduces exclusions for:

✅ Used and second-hand products.
✅ Recovered waste and scrap products.
✅ Products derived from recovered waste and scrap.
✅ Certain single-use or reusable packaging materials.
✅ Correspondence, marketing, and information materials accompanying another product or supplied free of charge.

Business Impact

Companies using paper labels, leaflets, manuals, information inserts, marketing documents, cardboard, or packaging should review whether those materials are independently in scope or excluded because they merely accompany another product.

This may be especially relevant for retailers, e-commerce companies, manufacturers, and exporters using mixed-material packaging.

🧪 Samples and Testing Products: Important Exemptions

The draft Annex introduces an important note excluding certain samples and testing products.

Products may be outside the scope where they are:

✅ Samples of negligible value and quantity used only to solicit orders.
✅ Products used for examination, analysis, or testing to determine composition, quality, or technical characteristics.
✅ Completely used up, destroyed, returned, or kept only for legal or contractual reasons linked to testing.

Business Impact

This clarification can help reduce unnecessary due diligence obligations for product samples and laboratory testing materials, provided the conditions are clearly met and documented.

Companies should maintain records showing why the product qualifies as a sample or testing item.

📌 What Companies Should Do Now

Companies affected by EUDR should not wait until enforcement pressure increases. This draft Annex signals that product scope is becoming more precise and, in some areas, broader.

Recommended Action Checklist

✅ Re-map product portfolios against the revised Annex entries.
✅ Review HS and CN codes, especially entries marked “ex”.
✅ Identify products containing or made using oil palm derivatives.
✅ Separate in-scope wood products from bamboo, rattan, used goods, packaging, and waste exclusions.
✅ Confirm whether rubber products are natural rubber from Hevea brasiliensis.
✅ Update supplier questionnaires and declarations.
✅ Document why any products are considered out of scope.
✅ Train procurement, compliance, customs, and product teams.
✅ Prepare for traceability and due diligence statement requirements where applicable.

⚠️ Key Takeaway

The draft Annex is not only a technical customs-code update. It is a practical compliance signal.

For some companies, the amendments may reduce scope by excluding used products, bamboo, rattan, waste, or packaging materials. For others, particularly those using oil palm derivatives, coffee extracts, soaps, chemicals, or industrial ingredients, the amendments may expand compliance obligations.

The safest approach is to perform a structured product-scope assessment and keep clear evidence for every inclusion or exclusion decision.

✅ How ComplyMarket Can Support Your EUDR Compliance Journey

ComplyMarket helps companies understand, manage, and document regulatory obligations across complex supply chains.

For this EUDR Annex update, ComplyMarket can support businesses by helping them:

🌿 Map product scope
Identify whether products, components, ingredients, or materials fall within the revised Annex I categories.

🔎 Review HS and CN classifications
Support product teams in understanding which “ex” codes may apply and where further supplier information is needed.

📦 Assess packaging, paper, wood, and rubber exclusions
Help determine whether products may be excluded as used goods, second-hand goods, recovered materials, samples, testing products, or packaging used only to support another product.

🌴 Trace oil palm derivatives
Support deeper supply chain checks for palm-based chemicals, soaps, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, glycerol, and other derivatives.

📑 Strengthen supplier documentation
Create structured supplier questionnaires, declarations, and evidence workflows aligned with EUDR expectations.

🚦 Build due diligence readiness
Organize risk assessment, traceability, documentation, and audit-readiness processes in one compliance framework.

Final Call to Action

As the EUDR product scope becomes more detailed, companies need more than a product list. They need a reliable compliance process.