Study Guide

Learning objectives

✓	Define ‘Origin’ and explain why it matters for tariff treatment, quotas, and anti-dumping duties.
✓	Distinguish between non-preferential and preferential Rules of Origin and the role each plays in trade.
✓	Identify the two general bases on which origin is determined: wholly obtained and substantially transformed.

Origin is the country in which goods were made or manufactured. It is not necessarily the country where the goods were shipped from. Origin matters because it determines whether a good qualifies for preferential treatment, or whether it is subject to discriminatory controls such as quotas or anti-dumping duty. These preferences or discriminations can arise under GATT, or from other trading Agreements such as bilateral free trade agreements, agreements establishing free trade areas or Customs zones, and preferential agreements such as the Lome Convention.

Given current global trading patterns and the intra-industry flows of raw and intermediate inputs, determining the origin status of a finished product is not always easy. The number of free trade Agreements continues to grow, each with its own Rules of Origin, and there is not yet a global set of standards on how those rules are to be defined and administered. Rules of origin fall into two categories: non-preferential and preferential.