The Timber Trade Federation (TTF) welcomed the further clarity provided in the document, such as the role of certification schemes in due diligence, but expressed "disappointment" that the Commission did not go further in explaining the definition of "first placement" of timber on the market.
With the regulation now less than a month away from coming into effect, the TTF said it would open discussions with Defra and the UK’s EUTR enforcement agency the National Measurement Office to see whether they could build on the guidance within the UK context.
The Commission’s guidance gives a number of scenarios to explain the definition of "first placement".
In a situation where a UK company buys, say, a panel product from outside the EU using a shipping agent, the UK company becomes an "operator" who will first place the product on the market. It is therefore the point in the supply chain which could face penalties in the regulation.
If the contract specifies that product ownership will transfer to the UK company while the product is outside the EU, or if ownership transfers when the product arrives at the company’s UK premises, the UK company is still classed as the "operator" placing the product on the market for the first time.
"The position under the regulation of agents who act as middle men, sourcing products for others and not merely acting as shipping agents, will need to be determined by reference to the particular facts of each case and the applicable contractual arrangements," said the Commission.
"An agent who purchases and brings stock into the EU to meet anticipated orders from buyers will be an operator in his own right, unlike a true agent who acts only on behalf of another party and at no point takes actual ownership of products himself."
The updated guidance also gives a checklist on the potential role of certification schemes in due diligence.
Importantly, the Commission says if "operators" and "suppliers" have chain of custody certification, it is no guarantee in itself that the specific product is certified.
"If relying on certification as assurance and purchasing from a supplier holding chain of custody certification, operators must therefore check that the specific product they purchase actually has the required certificate," it said.
With composite products like particleboard, operators need information on all virgin material in the mix, including species, the location where each component was harvested and legality of the components.
Where it is difficult to identify the species because of species variation within the product, operators have to produce a list of each species that may have been used.
Risk assessments are not required for components in a composite product that have previously been placed on the market (prior to incorporation in the composite product) or where they represent waste wood.
For more information visit www.ttf.co.uk or the new EUTR website at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eutr2013/index_en.htm
