The World Customs Organisation (WCO) recently held the forty-third meeting of its Technical Committee on Rules of Origin (TCRO) in Brussels, Belgium, under the banner of ‘Three Decades of Progress’. During the meeting, 120 in-person delegates and observers celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Rules of Origin (RoOs) and the subsequent establishment of the TCRO.

One could easily be deceived into believing that the process of determining goods’ origin is a fairly recent development. However, it dates back to between 907 AD and 911 AD, when the Byzantine Empire first applied a preferential rate of duty to goods originating in Russia.

Regular readers might recall that ‘origin’ is the second in the trilogy of “elements of taxation” and relates to goods being traded internationally – it is the “where is it from?” The other two are classification, or tariff classification (the “what it is?”) and customs valuation (the “what is its price?”). For context, tariff classification dates back to 199 BC, and customs valuation to 400 BC.

Origin is concerned with the identification of the goods’ ‘national source’, or their ‘economic nationality’. In the instance of the RoOs, the “Made in . . .” is the criterion used to determine the national source of a good; in other words, the criterion for conferring origin. Owing to its intertwining nature, the origin of a good is also considered to be both a non-tariff measure and a non-tariff barrier.

The WTO Agreement on RoOs does not specify rules of implementation, as it does for customs valuation and the WCO HS Convention does, but instead aims for long-term RoOs harmonisation.

The WTO has an interest in the RoOs granting tariff preferences, but only to the extent that it does not create unnecessary obstacles to trade. Both the WTO and the WCO focus on the harmonisation of the RoOs. The onus on WTO members is to ensure that their RoOs are transparent – and not restrictive, distorting or disruptive to international trade and that the RoOs are administered in a consistent, uniform, impartial and reasonable manner. A third requirement is that the RoOs be based on a positive statement, which confers origin on the basis of what is stated, and not what is not stated.

And here we are, celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of origin determination, the principles of which were founded in 907 BC.

To mark the WCO’s ‘milestone’, a special panel was organised to reflect on three decades of progress and achievements, as well as lessons learned and the way forward. The panel featured experts from the International Chamber of Commerce, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the WTO, and former and current TCRO chairpersons.

The acting director of the WCO’s Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate welcomed delegates, underscoring the importance of the session, inviting insightful discussions, meaningful collaboration and innovative solutions to help shape the future of both preferential and non-preferential RoOs.

Delegates actively exchanged experiences and deliberated on various technical issues, including origin interconnectivity, product- specific rules, origin irregularities, origin and green customs initiatives, origin issues in free zones /special economic zones, and the Revised Kyoto Convention Specific Annex K. These discussions highlighted the evolving nature of RoOs. Additionally, the Draft Potential Texts for Specific Annex K to the Revised Kyoto Convention were presented, demonstrating collaborative efforts with the Annex K Sponsoring Group to update and enhance this document.

The TCRO also reviewed the progress of its existing Work Programme and endorsed updates to the TCRO Work Programme 2024 to 2026. These updates include studies on the treatment of circular-economy products, such as remanufactured goods, as well as updates to WCO guidelines on free zones, covering RoOs within these zones. The increasing focus on sustainability in origin-related practices was highlighted by delegates expressing a strong interest in collaborating with the WCO secretariat on issues related to origin and green customs initiatives.

In closing, it was stressed that the forty- third session witnessed the highest number of in-person participants and proved to be one of the most engaging to date.

For more information on the WCO’s RoOs work, visit www.wcoomd.org/en/topics/origin.aspx