Article 29Assessment of countries

‘high risk’ refers to countries or parts thereof, for which the assessment referred to in paragraph 3 results in the identification of a high risk of producing in such countries or in parts thereof, relevant commodities for which the relevant products do not comply with Article 3, point (a);

‘low risk’ refers to countries or parts thereof, for which the assessment referred to in paragraph 3 concludes that there is sufficient assurance that instances of producing in such countries or in parts thereof, relevant commodities for which the relevant products do not comply with Article 3, point (a), are exceptional;

‘standard risk’ refers to countries or parts thereof which do not fall in either the category ‘high risk’ or the category ‘low risk’.

rate of deforestation and forest degradation;

rate of expansion of agriculture land for relevant commodities;

production trends of relevant commodities and of relevant products.

information submitted by the country concerned, regional authorities concerned, operators, NGOs and third parties, including indigenous peoples, local communities and civil society organisations, with regard to the effective covering of emissions and removals from agriculture, forestry and land use in the nationally determined contribution to the UNFCCC;

agreements and other instruments between the country concerned and the Union and/or its Member States that address deforestation and forest degradation and facilitate compliance of relevant commodities and relevant products with Article 3 and their effective implementation;

whether the country concerned has national or subnational laws in place, including in accordance with Article 5 of the Paris Agreement, and takes effective enforcement measures to tackle deforestation and forest degradation, and to avoid and penalise activities leading to deforestation and forest degradation and in particular whether it applies penalties of sufficient severity to deprive of the benefits accruing from deforestation or forest degradation;

whether the country concerned makes relevant data available transparently; and, if applicable, the existence, compliance with, or effective enforcement of laws protecting human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities and other customary tenure rights holders;

sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council or the Council of the European Union on imports or exports of the relevant commodities and relevant products.

the reason or reasons for the intention to change the risk classification of the country or parts thereof;

the invitation to respond to the Commission in writing with regard to the intention to changing the risk classification of the country or parts thereof;

the consequences of its classification as a high or low risk country.

The article continues in the official text.