EU deforestation rules bring new TRACES SOAP API integration hurdles for importers

From 30 December 2026, large and medium companies placing coffee, cocoa, timber, soy, rubber, palm oil or cattle on the EU market must file a due diligence statement under the EU Deforestation Regulation, with small and micro firms following on 30 June 2027 (except for timber). Statements are filed through the European Commission's TRACES system, and goods cannot clear customs without a reference number, though high-volume importers can use its machine-to-machine API. A developer writing about building against that SOAP interface reported that its WS-Security password digest must be computed from raw nonce bytes rather than the Base64 text, and that EUDR has its own acceptance environment separate from the general TRACES one. The developer also noted that the 2025 amendment (Regulation 2025/2650) discontinued earlier service versions, with version 4 now handling submission, amendment, withdrawal and retrieval. Several API changes, such as renamed operations and revised operator roles, could break code written against older examples.