Frequent Asked Questions

Here you will know the basic questions that an exporter will need to understand before starting to export.

How do I export my products?

To start exporting your products,one needs to understand the export process requirements.Click the following link to know the export procedures

What is the Certificate of Origin?

A Certificate of Origin (CO) is an important international trade document attesting that goods in a particular export shipment have been wholly obtained, produced, manufactured, or processed in a particular country. It is also a declaration by exporter.There are two major types of Certificates of Origin,namely:-

  1. 1.Non-preferential COs,

  2. Issued for goods which will not enjoy any preferential treatment.

  3. 2.Preferential Cos,

  4. Issued in the context of preferential trade agreements which will enable exporters to benefit from tariff exemption or reduction for eligible exports.

COs may be requested by Customs Administrations, importers, freight forwarders or banks for clearance of letters of credit.

What are the Rules of Origin?

Rules of Origin (RoO) are the criteria that set out the processing required to be undertaken locally in order for a product to be considered to be of local origin. RoO play a major role in international trade and can be broadly categorized into two of criteria: non-preferential and preferential RoO. Non-preferential RoO are a set of criteria used to allocate origin to a product entering a country or territory and are typically a set of exhaustive criteria that enables customs authorities to attribute a country of origin to the imported product entering its territory. Preferential RoO in contrast are those sets of rules and criteria that define when a product has obtained local economic origin and are linked directly to trade preferences and market access.

Virtually every country in the world considers the origin of imported goods when determining the duty that will be applied to the goods or, in some cases, whether the goods may be legally imported at all.

What are the Advantages?

TCCIA’s eCOs save time and money bypassing the delay and expense of employing messengers to obtain certification. After a few simple steps, and certification by TCCIA, collect your dully filled certificate. With TCCIA eCOs, freight forwarders can apply for COs on behalf of their clients and be in possession of them in hours. And TCCIA eCO procedures are compliant with the Certificate of Origin Guidelines of the International Chamber of Commerce, increasingly valued by customs administrations around the world.

  1. Reduce messenger costs

With eCOs the physical movements of exporter’s messengers to the chamber offices are reduced and only one appearance to collect the dully filled printed form will be necessary.

  1. Reduce incosistence errors

Reduce error occurrence probability which is common in processing the manual documents and hence saving the cost of repetitive processing of the documents. For-example, with eCOs the classification of a product’s customs tariff (HS codes) is simplified. The system will automatically generate the HS code once the product details have been entered.

  1. Save time

Reduce the time of dealing with customs queries. It is common for the customs officers to raise queries on the certificates of origin and it takes a long time to sort out the queries hence delaying exports for days and sometimes weeks. With eCOs customs officers can view all the details regarding a consignment via the system and all the queries are addressed immediately.

  1. Secured

Includes user secured account feature for an online application and certificate management before verification of authenticity of CoOs issued electronically.

  1. Reliable and Accessible

TCCIA authorized signatory can approve certificates even when they are away from the office eliminating the wait time for the exporter.The System can easily be accessible anywhere via online platforms (browsers) on computers or via mobile devices (smart phones/tablets) and can also provide feedback communication through simplified emails between exporters, customs and issuers.

What is the issuance Fee?

Issuing fee of Certificates of Origin remain the same as the one which has been applicable in the manual certificates. Please download the Fees Sheet to see the fee structure.