About

TCCIA started issuing CoO in 1999 following the government of Tanzania’s decision to delegate such role to the private sector. While this bold and important milestone was new in Tanzania, the role of chambers of Commerce in managing Certificates of Origin and rules of origin can be traced back to the 1923 Geneva Convention relating to simplification of customs formalities (Article 11) as eventually upheld by the Kyoto Convention. The government of Tanzania decided to delegate this role to the TCCIA among other reasons; the organization’s countrywide network, reliability, impartiality, direct link with exporters and therefore making it possible to efficiently serve the business community across the country.

Traditional way of issuance of Certificate of Origin

The traditional issuance procedure of these certificates has been a manual procedure which involves five steps before the goods are exported. These steps which an export has to go through is costly both in-terms of time and money. The procedure is accompanied by several challenges including a big volume of certificates that has to be signed by hand leading to wastage of time. The exporters have to go to the Chamber offices physically, collect empty certificate, fill it up and bring it back for signing. Apart from going to the Chamber twice before the CoO gets signed, the exporter has to visit other relevant authorities before finally completing the process.

Specifically the process involves; i) exporters physically visiting the TCCIA offices to pick-up the forms, ii) go back to their business premises to fill up the forms, iii) go through other relevant authorities to acquire respective papers (permits), and iv) bring back the filled form to the Chamber for signature, v) go to the local customs offices for stamping of his certificate. In some cases during filling up the form errors are committed and this will necessitates the repeat of the whole process. In several occasions customs officers have rejected the certificates due to the mismatch of signatures between the sample in their references and the one on the submitted certificates. This has led to the over-stay of the goods at the borders. Such procedures add the cost of doing business and as the result the final consumer pays for the additional cost reducing people’s welfare.

Electronic issuance of Certificate of Origin (eCO)

Online CO service is provided to speed up the application and issuance process as well as provide a more secure documentation environment. This is possible as eCO system is able to include security feature an online verification of authenticity of Cos issued electronically.