FAQ.- What Documents are needed for Due Diligence regarding legality in the country of production?

Operators must be aware of what legislation exists in the country they are sourcing from. Information, including documents and data showing compliance with applicable legislation in the country of production, must be collected as part of the due diligence obligation.

The obligation to collect documents or other information should be interpreted broadly, as there are different regulatory regimes in countries, and not all of them require the issuing of specific documentation. Therefore, the obligation should be understood as including:

• Official documents issued by countries authorities such as administrative permits.
• Documents showing contractual obligations, including contracts and agreements with

indigenous peoples or local communities.

• Complementary information issued by public and private certification or other third-party verified schemes.
• Judicial decisions.
• Impact assessments, management plans, environmental audit reports.

The following additional documents can be also useful:

• Documents showing company policies and codes of conduct.
• Social responsibility agreements between private actors and third right holders.
• Specific reports on tenure and rights claims and conflicts.

Information, including documents and data, may be collected in hard copy or in electronic form.  It is important to note that the information must be collected for the purposes of the risk assessment and should not be viewed as an independent requirement.

All information must be analyzed and verified, meaning operators must be able to evaluate the content and reliability of the documents they collect and to understand the links between the different information in the documents. Usually, the operator should check as part of the assessment:

• Whether the different documents are in line with each other and with other information available.
• What exactly each document proves.
• On which system (e.g. control by authorities, independent audit, etc.) the document is based.
• The reliability and validity of each document, meaning the likelihood of it being falsified or issued unlawfully.

Operators should take reasonable measures to satisfy themselves that such documents are genuine, depending on their assessment of the general situation in the country of production. In this regard, the operator must also consider the risk of corruption.

Various sources provide generally available information about the level of corruption in a country or subnational region. The most common used is Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), but other similar indices or relevant information may also be used.

A low CPI score shows that further verification may be required, meaning that special care is necessary when checking the documents as there might be reason to doubt their credibility.

The higher the risk of corruption in a specific case, the more it is necessary to collect additional evidence of compliance to mitigate the risk of non-compliant products entering or leaving the Union market. Examples of such additional evidence may include third-party-verified schemes, independent or self-conducted audits, or the use of technologies tracking the relevant products.