The European Commission has published the first benchmarking list, which classifies countries according to their "low", "standard", or "high" risk of deforestation.

This country classification takes into account the production of the seven commodities covered by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), including cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood.

The commission said that these commodities have been chosen "on the basis of a thorough impact assessment identifying them as the main driver of deforestation due to agricultural expansion".

The publication of the benchmarking list follows a positive opinion by consensus of all EU Member States, the commission added.

The aim of the EU Deforestation Regulation, according to the European Commission, is to ensure that goods in the EU market do not contribute to deforestation and forest degradation, both within the EU and globally.

The new regulation means that companies will only be allowed to sell products in the EU if the supplier provides a “due diligence” statement confirming that the product does not come from deforested land or has led to forest degradation.

The regulation was set to come into effect at the end of 2024. However, this was deferred until the end of 2025, and mid-2026 for smaller businesses.

The new classification defines the extent of compliance checks that authorities in Member States' authorities have to apply for a country (1% for ‘low risk', 3% for ‘standard' and 9% for ‘high risk').

"Sourcing from low-risk countries entails simplified due diligence obligations for operators and traders.

"Concretely, this means that they need to collect information, but not assess and mitigate risks," the commission said.

The EU Commission confirmed that countries which are identified in the high-risk category in this first country benchmarking list are subject to sanctions from the UN Security Council or the Council of the EU on imports or exports of the relevant commodities and relevant products.

There are four countries deemed to fall into this high-risk category: Russia; Belarus; North Korea and Myanmar.

Around 140 countries, including Ireland, the other 27 EU member states, the UK and the US, have been classed as being of low-risk.

The Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay are all classed as standard-risk, while Uruguay is low-risk.

The EU Commission said that the country benchmarking will "ensure a simple, fair and cost-efficient implementation of the EUDR".

It claimed that the new regulation "is already delivering positive developments on the ground to fight deforestation, climate change and biodiversity loss".