<b>T N C Rajagopalan</b>: Useful scheme for shipments to EU

The EU has now introduced a self-certification scheme for the rules of origin under GSP from Jan 1

The New Year gift for exporters is allowing of self-certification for the ‘statement on origin’ for shipments to the European Union (EU) under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).

Certificates of Origin under various preferential trade agreements, free trade agreements, comprehensive economic cooperation agreements or partnerships agreements are issued by designated agencies. A system of self-certification was introduced, to reduce the transaction cost, when the new Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 (FTP) was announced on March 31, 2015.  However, that wasn’t implemented, as no agreement could be reached with our trading partners on the modalities.

The EU has now introduced a self-certification scheme