Even though outdoor temperatures currently feel more like spring, all the signs point to the year-end sprint: we have once again entered into a new round of events on the changes in customs and foreign trade law taking effect at the turn of the year 2025/2026. Time to take stock and, as every year, to look back at recent developments and ahead to upcoming ones in our newsletter as well.
October in particular brought about various legal changes in the customs and sustainability fields that will take effect at the turn of the year. On 31 October 2025, the new version of the Combined Nomenclature (CN) was published in the Official Journal of the EU by way of Regulation (EU) 2025/1926. The annual adjustments are necessary in order to adapt the structure of the customs tariff to modern developments in goods. Among other things, new subheadings are being introduced to make it easier to monitor certain goods. In the interest of clarity, it was also necessary to amend the wording of individual footnotes in the CN. Experience shows that enthusiasm among staff tends to be limited when it comes to checking whether the commodity codes used within a company are affected by the CN changes taking effect on 1 January 2026. There is no way around it, though: the review must be carried out in good time before the changes enter into force on 1 January! Fortunately, the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) is once again providing valuable assistance this year, with its published correlation tables for the eight-digit commodity codes, in carrying out this task.
In foreign trade law, the amendment to Annex I of the EU Dual-Use Regulation (EU) 2021/821 entered into force very early this year. Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2003 published the revised version of Annex I to the Dual-Use Regulation. It should be noted that these changes entered into force as early as the following day, meaning they have already applied since 15 November 2025. Here too, companies need to check whether the revised Annex affects the goods they export, that is, whether goods are now (newly) listed and therefore subject, going forward, to an export authorisation requirement.
In addition to these annually recurring changes, importing and exporting companies may also be affected by further changes at the turn of the year:
Exporters issuing statements on origin within the PEM area on the basis of the Regional Convention should prepare for the fact that, from 1 January 2026, in all likelihood only the new, revised rules of origin will apply. It is advisable to check, via the customs administration’s WuP database (https://wup.zoll.de/wup_online/index.php), which rules currently apply for verifying origin. The so-called Matrix provides information on the cumulation options available within the PEM zone. It was last published in the Official Journal of the EU, C/2025/6261 of 13 November 2025.
Importers of goods subject to CBAM may, where applicable, benefit from the relief introduced under the so-called Omnibus Initiative. Here too, the relevant amending regulation (Regulation (EU) 2025/2083) was published in October 2025 (OJ EU L of 17 October 2025). The most significant change here is likely to be the introduction of the 50-tonne threshold for the total net mass of all goods under all relevant CN codes, per importer, per calendar year. The Commission justified this change on the basis that it would still ensure that at least 99% of the embedded emissions associated with imported goods continue to fall within the scope of CBAM, with the de minimis exemption applying to no more than 1% of the emissions associated with imported goods (recital 5, Regulation (EU) 2025/2083). Many companies previously subject to CBAM are therefore likely to fall outside the scope of the CBAM Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/956). Only where imports exceed this threshold will importers need to hold authorised CBAM declarant status from 1 January 2026, meaning they must have submitted their application for authorisation by 31 January 2026, and will be subject to the further CBAM obligations. The customs administration has issued an ATLAS Info notice (ATLAS Info 0881/2025) on the coding required in connection with the import of CBAM goods.
On 4 December 2025, the European Parliament and the Council of the Union reached agreement on a further postponement of the Regulation on deforestation-free products (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EUDR), together with further simplifications in connection with that Regulation. This political agreement still needs to be formally adopted before it becomes legally binding. This means the Regulation will apply to medium-sized and large companies from 30 December 2026, and to micro and small enterprises from 30 June 2027, a further postponement, and thus an opportunity for the companies affected to familiarise themselves with the requirements.
A political agreement was also reached, on 9 December 2025, on adjustments to the EU Supply Chain Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1760, CSDDD). Here too, the changes, including a considerably reduced scope of application for the companies covered by the Directive, are expected to be formally adopted and thereby become legally binding. Once that happens, only very large companies, with more than 5,000 employees and annual net worldwide turnover exceeding €1.5 billion, would remain within the scope of the Directive.
As the year draws to a close, then, significant developments are emerging, particularly in the field of sustainability. We will explore these in greater depth at our year-end update events. The same applies to the many other developments we have tracked for you over the course of the year, including in case law as well as in the practice of the customs administration. We reported on some of these throughout the past year in our newsletter, where we considered them relevant to your customs and export control practice. We will continue to monitor the legal landscape for you in the coming year and will endeavour, as always, to keep you informed of developments in our newsletter, promptly and in a practice-oriented manner. That customs and foreign trade law is a dynamic field is something that becomes evident anew each year. We look forward to the next round in 2026!
