19 February, 2026

MACF/CBAM: default values available in Excel format

CUSTOMS

While the final phase of the Carbon Adjustment Border Facility (CBM) is becoming clearer, importing companies must now provide for the costs associated with the purchase of certificates, the sale of which will only begin in February 2027. With the recent publication of default values and accompanying tools, the hour is at operational and financial readiness.

As part of the deployment of the final phase of the MACF, importers must provide for the additional costs associated with the purchase of certificates.

Originally, the management of certificates had to be carried out upstream of imports of products subject to MACF: the idea is that an authorized registrant (i.e. the importing company known as MACF) buys MACF certificates and is a quarterly stock covering GHG emissions from its supplier for the manufacture of imported goods.

In fact, it is not yet possible to purchase these certificates; It has therefore been foreseen by the EU to postpone this procedure until February 2027, when the sale of certificates will be possible on the MACF 2.0 register (platform on which the annual declarations will then be filed from September 2027). Therefore, importers will have to purchase the necessary quantities of certificates in February 2027 to cover the year 2026.

As a reminder, two methods can be used to calculate the requirement for certificates according to the mass volume of the goods: a so-called real value method and a so-called default value method, the second method being more penalising since the default values are added to a mark-up that will increase over the years (from 10% in 2026 to 30% from 2028).

On 31 December 2025, the European Commission published the default values in the Official Journal of the EU 2025/2621 ; These values, set by country of origin and by targeted product, are available in Excel version since 13 February on the page dedicated to MACF, allowing importers to import the matrix to know the values to be included in the certificate calculations and to be able to provide these costs in case they use the default values. These values are also reflected in the calculator implemented by DGEC for French companies.

At the same time, on 16 February the Commission updated its training modules available on the training platforms for importers but also for so-called suppliers « facilities » as part of the reporting of emissions.