Lex Portus (Feb 2019)
The Rules for Determining the Non-preferential Origin of Goods in Accordance With the Customs Code of the European Union
Abstract
The rules have been analyzed for determining the non-preferential origin of goods in accordance with the Customs Code of the European Union in the article. This code discloses the purpose of their separation and application, and worked out in detail and differentiated rules that should apply in one or another circumstance. The need for such a distinction is due to difficulties in determining the country of origin of goods, especially if the production process took place in more than one of them. Summing up, the author observes that there are two basic concepts that determine the origin of goods, namely: “fully manufactured” goods and goods that have undergone the “last significant transformation”. If only one country is involved in production, the concept of “fully manufactured goods” will be applied. In practice, this is limited mainly to goods received in their natural state, and goods made and received entirely in one country. If two or more countries are involved in the production of goods, then the term “last, substantial transformation” that defines the country of origin of the goods is used. For customs clearance of goods it is necessary to define the “nationality” of the goods, that is, to find out the country of origin of the imported products. After classifying a product in the Harmonized System and finding out its value, determining the country of origin is the third key element of the customs clearance procedure. The laws, the regulations and the administrative rules used by governments to determine the country of origin are called “Rules of Origin”. In particular, such non-preferential rules of origin are used to apply the anti-dumping and compensating duties, the administrative tariff quotas, the marking requirements, the trade embargoes or quantitative restrictions.
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