Supplier’s Declaration Checker
Two questions decide which of the four prescribed forms you need. If it is a long-term declaration, the dates decide whether the period is one the regulation allows.
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Why there are four
A supplier’s declaration is what one EU business gives another so the buyer can work out the origin status of what they make from it. The regulation prescribes four, one for each combination of two questions: do the goods already have preferential origin status, and is this a one-off or a standing arrangement.
Using the preferential form for goods that contain non-originating materials is the common error, and it is a costly one — the manufacturer downstream builds their own origin claims on it, and nobody finds out until a customs audit works back up the chain.
The two long-term forms are not worded the same
This is the part no guidance page mentions, because you only see it by reading the annexes side by side:
| Form | What the footnote actually says |
|---|---|
| Annex 22-16 preferential | Give the dates. The period shall not exceed 24 months or 12 months if the declaration was issued retrospectively. |
| Annex 22-18 non-preferential | Give the dates. The period should not exceed 24 months. |
One says shall and names a shorter limit for a declaration issued retrospectively. The other says should and says nothing about retrospective issue at all. So this tool applies the 12-month rule to the first and not to the second, and reports the silence rather than filling it in. Inventing a limit the text does not contain is the same kind of error as ignoring one it does.
What “retrospective” means here
A declaration whose validity starts before the day it was written is retrospective. That is ordinary — a supplier formalising an arrangement that has been running for months — but for the preferential long-term form it halves the maximum period.
Dates are checked, not rounded
A period of exactly 24 months is allowed: the annex says the period shall not exceed 24 months. Adding months lands on the same day number, falling back to the last day of the month where that day does not exist — 31 January plus one month is 28 February. A date that is not a real calendar date is rejected rather than adjusted, because a silently corrected date is a period a day longer than anyone agreed.
What this does not do
It does not decide whether your goods have preferential origin status. That comes from the rules of origin for the arrangement — the processing done, the materials used, the value added — and it is the input to this tool, not its output.
Every check this tool runs (13 rules)
SUP-N01 This does not decide whether the goods qualify
Which form you need follows from what you already know about the goods — whether they have preferential origin status and whether you supply them regularly. Whether they actually have that status is a question about the rules of origin: the processing done, the materials used and the value added. This tool takes your answer to that and does not check it.
Fix: For the origin status itself, work from the rules of origin of the arrangement concerned.
Source: European Commission — Proof of origin (preferential rules of origin)
SUP-F01 Which of the four forms applies
The regulation prescribes four supplier declarations, one for each combination of two questions: do the goods already have preferential origin status, and is this a one-off or a long-term declaration. Using the preferential form for goods that contain non-originating materials is the common mistake, and it misleads the manufacturer downstream about what they can claim.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-P01 The validity period exceeds what the regulation allows
A long-term supplier declaration for goods having preferential origin status carries a hard limit: the period shall not exceed 24 months, or 12 months where the declaration was issued retrospectively. A longer period is not a stricter promise, it is a declaration the customs authority can set aside.
Fix: Shorten the period to the limit and issue a fresh declaration when it runs out.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-P02 The validity period is longer than the regulation indicates
The long-term declaration for goods not having preferential origin status is worded differently from its preferential counterpart: the period should not exceed 24 months. It is the softer word, and this tool reports the difference rather than flattening the two texts into one rule — but a period beyond 24 months is still outside what the annex contemplates.
Fix: Keep the period within 24 months unless you have a specific reason and can support it.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-P03 This declaration was issued retrospectively
A declaration whose validity starts before the day it was written is retrospective. For the preferential long-term form that halves the maximum period, from 24 months to 12.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-R01 No retrospective rule is stated for this form
The preferential long-term annex names a shorter limit for retrospective declarations. The non-preferential one does not mention retrospective issue at all, so no 12-month rule is applied here. That silence is reported rather than filled in — inventing a limit the text does not contain would be the same error as ignoring one it does.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-P04 The period ends before it begins
The end date of the validity period falls before the start date, so the declaration covers nothing at all.
Fix: Check the two dates — most often the year on one of them is wrong.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-P05 That shipment is not covered by this declaration
A long-term declaration only covers shipments dispatched inside its validity period. A shipment outside it needs either its own declaration or a fresh long-term one — the paperwork on file is not evidence for goods that moved before it started or after it ran out.
Fix: Issue a declaration covering that shipment.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-D01 A date could not be read
Dates are read as YYYY-MM-DD. A value that is not a real calendar date — the 31st of a 30-day month, or February 30th — is rejected rather than rounded, because rounding a date silently is how a period ends up a day longer than anyone intended.
Fix: Enter the date as YYYY-MM-DD.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-L01 A long-term declaration carries an undertaking
Both long-term forms commit the supplier to tell the customer immediately if the declaration stops being valid. It is part of the prescribed text, not a courtesy: the manufacturer downstream is relying on it for every shipment in the period, and a change in the goods that nobody passes on turns their claims into false ones.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-H01 The non-preferential forms need the materials listed
A declaration for goods without preferential origin status is not a bare statement — it carries a table of the non-originating materials used, with the HS heading and value of each where relevant. That table is what lets the manufacturer downstream work out whether their own product meets its rule of origin.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-C01 The cumulation box is not for everyone
All four forms carry a cumulation declaration. The regulation says it is to be completed only where necessary, for goods with preferential origin status in trade with a country where pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation applies. Ticking it elsewhere states something about the origin of the goods that is not true of them.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
SUP-E01 What goes in each blank
The footnotes to each annex say what belongs in every blank of that form, including how to handle a document that covers several goods with different origin status. They are reproduced with the form rather than summarised, because a summary is where the exceptions get lost.
Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 — Union Customs Code implementing provisions
The four forms and their 37 footnotes are reproduced from the regulation as captured on 2026-08-23.