INTERNATIONAL ACT

CUSTOMS

On Wednesday 16 October, the fourth DGEC webinar (Directorate-General for Energy and Climate) was held, a wealth of information and very clear explanations to complete the report of the third quarter 2024.

Organised yesterday, Wednesday 16 October, the last DGEC webinar dedicated to theMACF(Mechanism of Carbon Adjustment at the Frontiers), which had as support the Importer's Guide,achieved a real success of audience! This time, many points, which have remained unclear since 31 July, when the EU had tightened the emission reporting tolerances so far, have been clarified.

Many themes were discussed during this event. This week, we chose to revisit the topic of the deadline priority of 31 October 2024 with the end of the authorisation of reports based on default CO2 values.

For information, according to DGEC figures, on the1145 French importers(17000 at European level) having submitted a report for the second quarter of 2024,90% used default valuesto report greenhouse gas emissions from imported products. It is therefore important for the DGEC to recall the framework within which the publication ofFrench DoctrineSeptember. From a strictly European point of view, default values can no longer be used at 100% to report emissions in the reports and, in the event of an uncorrected defect or error, importers are in a situation of infringement. For this reason, it will be impossible to select this option on the IT platform for the report to be provided at the end of October.

The European Commission has, however, left amargin of manoeuvre for national authoritiesin order to ensure effective implementation of the MACF. In this context, the DGEC, aware of the difficulties of the undertakings concerned, decided to make certain points of the Regulation flexible both in the level of reporting requirements and in the level of penalties for non-compliance with the MACF Regulation.

In the third quarter 2024 report, importers who have failed to obtain the actual emission values from their suppliers will have to provide the following information on the European portal:

- Method of calculation: « Current Data not available »This statement will have the effect of declaring aemission factor equal to zeroin the corresponding box (it is necessary to leave this zero),

- Additional information + additional tab: insert here thedefault value(similar to previous months) and theproof of good faithdemonstrating the efforts of the importer (mails or other correspondence proving the exchanges with suppliers).

This method demonstrates to the European Commission that importers are doing their utmost to comply with the Regulation.

However, DGEC points out that the flexibilities granted to French companies could be modified by April 2025 in the light of the results of the consultations with the other Member States to avoid spillover. Since European importers can clear customs in all EU countries, they could choose France as the importing country to benefit from the facilitated arrangements granted.

Next week, we will propose to you to revisit a new theme addressed at this webinar: the next deadlines, including the modalities for applying for MACF status, which is expected to open in January 2025.

In the meantime, you can see or see theDGEC webinar.