CBAM for Non-EU Producers: What a US Plant Exporting to the EU Actually Has to Do

A plant in the United States has no direct legal obligation under CBAM. Declarations, certificates and penalties all fall on the EU's authorised CBAM declarants. But those declarants can only use your plant's actual emissions, rather than the Commission's deliberately conservative default values, if you monitor them under EU rules and have them verified by an EU-accredited verifier. Registering in the CBAM Registry is "recommended, but currently voluntary". Any reduction for a carbon price paid at home has to be documented and independently certified.

Are you in scope?

The Commission's Guidance No. 2, Quick guide for non-EU operators (14 August 2026), starts with two questions. Do you produce CBAM goods, meaning cement, iron and steel, aluminum, fertilizers, hydrogen or electricity whose CN codes appear in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/956? And do those goods end up in the EU? It notes you are affected even indirectly:

• when you sell to traders who resell to EU customers;
• when your product is a precursor for another manufacturer's CBAM good that is later exported to the EU, for example your pig iron or ammonia used elsewhere.

Only goods originating in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, and a few territories such as Büsingen, Heligoland, Livigno, Ceuta and Melilla, are outside CBAM (Annex III, point 1). The United States is not on that list.

In the regulation, an operator is "any person that operates or controls an installation in a third country, including a parent company" (Art. 3(31), as amended in 2025). This lets a US parent manage CBAM data for several plants.

Option 1: register in the CBAM Registry (O3CI)

Under Article 10, the Commission registers a third-country operator and its installations on request. The request includes:

• the name, address, corporate or activity registration number and contact details of the operator, and of any controlling entity or parent company;
• the location of each installation, with the complete address and coordinates to six decimal places;
• the main economic activity of each installation.

Registration is valid for five years from notification (Art. 10(3)). Once registered, you must determine embedded emissions by type of good, have them verified, keep the verification report and calculation records, and, where relevant, upload carbon-price evidence (Art. 10(5)). Guidance No. 2 lists the practical benefits: you upload verified data for each installation once and share it with every declarant importing your goods, and declarants see only a summary. From 2027, the registry is due to let you share data with other operators that use your goods as precursors. You may also choose to keep your name, address and plant locations off the public part of the registry (Art. 14(4)).

Monitoring: the plan your verifier will audit

Guidance No. 2 sets out a seven-step path to a written monitoring plan:

1. Define boundaries, production processes and routes. The 2025 Methodology Act (Implementing Regulation 2025/2547) groups CN codes into manageable production processes.
2. Use the calendar year as the reporting period. Goods imported in 2026 are reported for 2026 unless the actual production period is proven, and never for a period before 2026.
3. Identify the parameters. These are direct emissions (by calculation or by continuous measurement), measurable heat flows, indirect emissions, precursors and sector-specific parameters such as clinker content for cement. For PFC emissions from primary aluminum, a method based on overvoltage measurement is required. For N2O from nitric acid, measurement is compulsory.
4. Choose the monitoring method for each parameter, such as meters, purchase records, laboratory analyses or standard values. Default values are a last resort.
5. Collect free-allocation data. This is new in the definitive period, because your "embedded free allocation" is deducted from embedded emissions to calculate your customer's certificate obligation.
6. Collect carbon-price data, if a carbon price applies to your installation.
7. Set up data flows and controls. Assess risks, define controls such as four-eyes reviews and calibration, and reassess.

Indirect emissions (from electricity) count only for goods not listed in Annex II. Annex II lists iron and steel, aluminum, hydrogen and electricity, so in practice indirect emissions apply to cement and fertilizers. The monitoring plan must be available to the verifier in English. After each year, you prepare the mandatory operator's emissions report and its summary, and send the specific embedded emissions to your customers.

Verification: book an EU-accredited verifier early

Actual data can replace default values only once verified. Guidance No. 2 says the verifier "must have an accreditation from a National Accreditation Body situated in the EU", valid when it issues the final report and covering your sector. Under Article 10a, accredited verifiers register in the CBAM registry, but not before 1 September 2026.

Carbon price paid: how double charging is avoided

Article 9 lets the EU declarant, not you, claim fewer certificates for a carbon price paid outside the EU. The conditions, as amended in 2025, are:

• embedded emissions are declared on the basis of actual emissions;
• the carbon price has been effectively paid, net of any rebate or compensation. Guidance No. 2 adds that under an emissions trading system, free allocation counts as a rebate;
• the documentation is certified by a person independent of both the declarant and the third country's authorities, and evidence of actual payment is kept;
• if default values are used, the reduction can only be claimed by reference to yearly default carbon prices, which the Commission may publish in the registry from 2027 for countries with carbon pricing (Art. 9(4)).

Recital 22 of Regulation 2025/2083 adds that a carbon price paid in a country other than the country of origin can also be deducted. Operators are expected to express the effective price in euros per tonne of good and pass it on with the emissions data.

A 12-month action plan for a US plant

1. List your products' CN codes and the EU customers or traders who buy them.
2. Decide whether to register in the CBAM Registry (O3CI module) or share data directly.
3. Write the monitoring plan in English, covering emissions, precursors, free-allocation data and carbon price.
4. Contract an EU-accredited verifier early in the reporting year and plan the first physical site visit.
5. Close the books after 31 December, compile the operator's emissions report and get it verified.
6. Send verified data to declarants well before their 30 September declaration deadline.

You can ask the EU CBAM knowledge base precise questions, such as "As a factory owner outside the EU, am I personally required to sign up on the CBAM Registry?" Answers cite the regulation or the Commission's operator guidance.

This article reflects the regulation as amended in October 2025, the December 2025 implementing acts and Commission guidance dated August 2026. It is not legal or technical advice. Check the knowledge base and the Commission's site for later guidance, especially on the carbon price paid.