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Indonesia wishes to follow-up to its question AG-IMS ID 104053 and inquire more detailed information regarding country benchmarking in the EU's Deforestation and Forest Degradation policy.

a. Who would be responsible for the categorization of countries as low-risk, standard-risk, or high-risk?

b. Will the EU employ a third party to conduct the categorization? If so, does this third party possess exclusive authority in the benchmarking? Or will it consult the EU Commission and the producing countries? Would it be possible for the respective target country to appeal the result of such categorization?

c. What will be the basis of categorization? Will it be country-based, region-based, or commodity-based?

If a commodity from one particular region is considered as high-risk, will the same categorization apply to other commodities from the same region?

Will the label of a particular commodity in one region be also applied to that particular commodity from other region in the same country? 

d. In response to our previous question AG-IMS ID 104053, the EU stated that the main criteria for assessment in country benchmarking include: (i) rate of deforestation and forest degradation, (ii) rate of expansion of agriculture land for relevant commodities, and (iii) production trends of relevant commodities and of relevant products.

Could the European Union provide detailed information about the methodology to calculate the aforementioned criteria, including the data sources?

How would the European Union resolve the possibility of discrepancies in data and/or the unavailability of the required data?

e. When will the benchmarking start to apply?

In addition, Indonesia also requests the EU to explain:

f. whether the Regulation intends to eventually replace the existing certification schemes, such as the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).

g. Who would be the competent authorities in the context of the implementation of the Regulation. Please also explain about the business process involved and the review of the implementation of the Regulation. 
Answer
Answer Full Text

Pursuant to Article 29 of the EUDR, the country benchmarking system will be operated by the Commission, with support from an external contractor.    

The country benchmarking system will be developed by the Commission based on scientific data. The main criteria for the assessment that the Commission must carry out are: (a) rate of deforestation and forest degradation, (b) rate of expansion of agriculture land for relevant commodities, (c) production trends of relevant commodities and of relevant products. As foreseen in the EUDR, the assessment may also take into account other criteria such as information supplied by governments and third parties (NGOs, industry); agreements and other instruments between the country concerned and the Union and/or its Member States that address deforestation and forest degradation and their effective implementation; the national laws to fight deforestation and forest degradation and their enforcement; the availability of transparent data in the country; respect of indigenous peoples; international sanctions imposed; etc.    

The EU can confirm that the work is ongoing. The methodology is currently being developed and will be presented in future meetings of the Multi-Stakeholder Deforestation Platform.  

Once preliminary results are available, the EU will ensure the necessary time to engage in a dialogue with the countries identified as possible high risk (fully or in part).   

The Regulation recognizes that information supplied by certification or other third-party verified schemes may provide complementary information on compliance with the Regulation for the risk assessment carried out by economic operators. The Regulation is an autonomous measure of the EU and as such is without prejudice to existing certification schemes.   

Member States shall designate one or more competent authorities responsible for fulfilling the obligations arising from this Regulation. The list of competent authorities designated thus far is available at: https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/34861680-e799-4d7c-bbad-da83c45da458/library/b52a6d25-e365-4301-a90a-59cf7ce2e8d3/details?download=true . The list will be continuously updated by the Commission.   

In compliance with Article 34, the Commission has started the process of review of the regulation, which will cover its potential expansion to other wooded land and other ecosystems, the review of its product scope (in terms of both commodities and derived products) as well as an assessment of the role of financial institutions. The Impact assessment which will be published by the Commission in June 2025 will also be informed by the findings of an Open Public Consultation which will enable all relevant stakeholders to share their view on the different aspects covered by the review clause.   
Follow-up comments

Indonesia elaborated on its questions regarding benchmarking. Indonesia noted that it was an archipelago country with over 17,000 islands. Many agricultures commodities were planted across the country. So, if the benchmarking is region-based, and when one region is mislabelled as high risk, Indonesia asked whether other commodities in that region would also be labelled as high risk? On the other hand, if its commodities-base, would the label of a particular commodity from one region be also applicable to another region? For example, agriculture commodity A from Aceh is mislabelled as high risk, what about commodity A product from Java? or from Bali? or from Sulawesi? or Papua? Indonesia explained that these regions were thousand kilometres away. If commodity A from Aceh was high risk, what about commodity A, B, C, D, F, and G from that region? Would they also be labelled as high risk? For Indonesia, this kind of clarity was very important, and it was the reason why Indonesia continued to ask this question which thus far had remained unanswered. Indonesia urged the EU to start responding clearly to questions. Indonesia added that there was also a need to know the criteria used to categorize countries. In response to a previous question from Indonesia in AG-IMS 104053, the EU had stated that the main criteria for assessment in Country benchmarking included rate of deforestation, forest degradation, rate of expansion of agricultural land and production trends of relevant products. Indonesia believed that country benchmarking must also respect countries efforts to reduce deforestation and to restore previously deforested areas. Indonesia was of the view that the EU should adopt more comprehensive measures where restoration and mitigation measures were included as part of indicators for assessing deforestation risk levels within their benchmarking system. â€‹
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All agricultural products
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non-Annex 1 products
Question Summary
EU's Deforestation And Forest Degradation Strategy
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