Electronic Certificates of Origin provide easier and faster Customs clearance and productivity gains for companies.

What is a Certificate of Origin? 

A Certificate of Origin (CO) is an important international trade document attesting that goods in a particular export shipment are wholly obtained, produced, manufactured or processed in a particular country. COs also constitute a declaration by the exporter.

Millions of COs are issued every year, facilitating trade around the world. Since as early as 1898, Chambers of commerce have been issuing non-preferential COs.

The 1923 Geneva Convention and subsequent Kyoto Convention have seen governments formally recognize the important role chambers play in this domain, deeming them competent authorities and credible trusted third-parties in the issuance of COs.

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.

In addition, COs may be needed to comply with letters of credit, foreign customs requirements or a buyer’s request.

Click Here To Get Your Certificate of Origin

The following is a statement issued by the International Chamber of Commerce World Chambers Federation regarding electronic Certificates of Origin. This may provide some talking points for you as you discuss the transition with your members.

The benefits of eCO acceptance: Chambers of Commerce issue millions of CO per year. To keep pace with the rapid shift to e-Business and improve efficiency in serving the business community, providing eCO is a top priority for Chambers. With increasing concerns on fraud and the need to improve the security of the supply chain security, many Chambers already provide online CO services to provide a secure trading environment, but also to save time, costs and increase transparency. In addition to speeding up application and issue processes, eCO also helps Chambers to reinforce the integrity of COs. This is possible because eCO systems are able to include security features such as online eCO authenticity verification, optical watermarking technology to distinguish between original and copies of COs issued, digital rubber stamps of the Chamber and signatures of authorized officials, microprint to

deter unauthorized re-production of the CO, 2-D barcode to ensure data integrity, PKI technology to ensure data security and authenticity and printer control language is used to control the printing of only one original CO. eCOs have been welcomed by the business community as they speed up customs clearance and expedite clearance of letters of credit by banks.