Origin

The origin of goods means in which county the goods were mainly manufactured. It is important to separate the two different types of origin:

• Origin of the goods based on which customs preferential treatment i.e. reduced duty rates are granted for the goods. Read more about preferential treatment based on origin.
• Origin of the goods without preferential treatment. This is called a general origin of goods. Read more about the general origin of goods on this page. 

General origin of goods

When the origin of the goods does not involve granting preferential treatment, the general rules of origin are used for determining the origin. These situations include the following

• application of general duty levels on import
• management of quantitative restrictions of import
• anti-dumping measures
• customs statistics and other commercial reasons

The country of origin of the goods is mandatory information in import declarations.

According to the general rules of origin, goods wholly produced or manufactured in a single country are regarded as having their origin in that country. Goods the production of which involves more than one country are deemed to originate in the country where they underwent their last, substantial processing or working. The general rules of origin of the Union may differ from the corresponding rules of other countries. Therefore, the same product may acquire different origins depending on which country’s rules of origin are applied. Upon import, the country of origin of a product is usually determined based on the rules of the country of import.

General certificate of origin

General certificates of origin are usually granted by the Chamber of Commerce of the different countries. Preferential treatment, i.e. a reduced duty rate, is never granted based on a general certificate of origin, unless there are separate provisions on it concerning certain special products.