17 July 2012
We are in a difficult situation and would appreciate some advice. We are a 3rd country based trading company (let’s assume “Singapore” for this case) and have bought goods from an Indian manufacturer and shipped them to our client in Europe. The client in Europe needs a “Certificate of Origin – Form A”.
The relevant Indian government organisation is not willing to issue a form-a, with our Singapore co. as shipper, because it’s not an Indian registered company.
Usually when we purchase from china, we are easily able to get a Form with shipper shown as “Chinese Company O/B of Our Singapore Co”. But it seems that this is not possible in India?
The solution advised by client is, we get a CO-Form A, Issued by the real manufacturer with the real manufacturer as “shipper” and “to order of” as consignee. In this form, column 10 (Invoice No), would be the invoice number of invoice issued by the manufacturer to our singapore Co. In this case the customer says, the EU Customs authority “may” ask us to provide a copy of the invoice between the real manufacturer and our Co. This exposes our margin, hence is not preferred by us.
The goods have already been on board for the last 10 days. Would appreciate some advice on this.
Other Notes: This is purely a TT Transaction, hence no LC Involved
18 July 2012
A Certificate of Origin (often abbreviated to C/O or COO) is a document used in international trade. It is a printed form, completed by the exporter or its agent and certified by an issuing body, attesting that the goods in a particular export shipment have been wholly produced, manufactured or processed in a particular country.
The “origin” does not refer to the country where the goods were shipped from but to the country where they were made. In the event the products were manufactured in two or more countries, origin is obtained in the country where the last substantial economically justified working or processing is carried out. An often used practice is that if more than 50% of the cost of producing the goods originates from one country, the "national content" is more than 50%, then, that country is acceptable as the country of origin.[1]
When countries unite in trading agreements, they may allow Certificate of Origin[2] to state the trading bloc, for example, the European Union (EU) as origin, rather than the specific country. Determining the origin of a product is important because it is a key basis for applying tariff and other important criteria. However, not all exporters need a certificate of origin, this will depend on the destination of the goods, their nature, and it can also depend on the financial institution involved in the export operation.
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