Origin of comodities
The entry of the Slovak Republic into EU meant a new amendment of the customs preferences issue and to it related declarations on preferential origin. With regard to many questions you have been asking, we have prepared for you a brief description of legislative requirements and also information on how is this matter solved in the company FERONA Slovakia, a.s.
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORIGIN RULES
1.1 Origin of commodities
The institute of origin rules of products and commodities is closely interconnected with the issue of customs. Several types of customs rates are applied within the EU, among others also so-called preferential customs tariffs, which represent advantageous tariffs in comparison to other customs tariffs.
This issue is governed by a number of EU agreements with individual countries or groups of countries or by a form of unilateral measures from the part of EU towards selected groups of countries. These agreements contain rules leading to the determination of origin of products and commodities in a specific country by form of exact definitions related to individual chapters of the Harmonised System of Product Classification.
The purpose is an exact distinction of the origin of a product and determination, if the product is entitled to applying the preferential customs tariff when exported. i.e. whether it is a preferential origin product or not.
1.2 Preferential EU agreements and unilateral preferential measures of the EU
EU has contractually agreed preferential agreements or unilateral preferences with virtually all countries of the world except for USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Products of these listed countries have always un-preferential origin and preferential customs tariffs do not apply to them.
1.3 Usage of the origin rules
All EU preferential agreements and EU unilateral measures (contained in the Commission Regulation (EEC) 2454/93 execution regulation of the Community Customs Code as amended by the Commission Regulation (EC) 1602/2000) contain detailed rules for determination of commodities origin, and especially define so-called sufficient and insufficient treatment and processing of products. Their appendices contain overview of products according to the Harmonised System including their concrete methods of treatment and processing, which are necessary for acquiring the preferential product status in a concrete country, in which is such treatment or processing performed.
2. ATTESTATION OF ORIGIN IN EU
2.1 Legal enactment of origin attestation
The entry to the EU introduced the obligation to apply the contents of the Council Regulation (EC) 1207/2001 as amended by later regulations (No. 1617/2006) and (appendices I – IV of this Council Regulation) in practice.
The origin of products and commodities is generally attested in principle by two ways, and that by declaration of manufacturer/supplier or by the form EUR.1.
It is substantial for usage of the above mentioned forms of declaration, if the supplier has assigned an authorization of a so-called approved exporter, which enables the utilization of simplified customs procedure for commodities export.
2.2 Declaration of manufacturer/supplier
This is a written document, whereby the manufacturer or supplier attests to its customer by form of a declaration that the supplied commodity has origin in country specified by it. It can be in form of a declaration on an invoice, delivery note, or it can have form of a separate document. It is possible to issue it also additionally after the supply is executed.
Individual types of the declaration can be distinguished by three different criteria and that if it is a declaration for products having preferential or non-preferential origin, if it is a one-time or long-term declaration and if it relates to business within EU or export outside EU.
2.3 Forms EUR.1
The document EUR.1 is issued by a relevant customs authority on the basis of a written application of the supplier on specified form. Specified templates of the document EUR.1 and applications form a part of all EU preferential agreements and are unified.
EU preferential agreements stipulate exact usage of the document EUR.1. This document serves as a proof of commodity origin solely in Tunisia and Morocco, where the form of written supplier declaration can not be used. It is also used in case of business with countries, with which the EU does not have any preferential agreements (see 1.2).
3. ORIGIN ATTESTATION IN FERONA SLOVAKIA, A.S.
The obligation to apply the Council Regulation (EC) 1207/2001 as amended by later regulations No. 1617/2006 meant for FERONA Slovakia, a.s. necessity to prepare a relevant methodology including a SW application, whose output is the provision of a proof of origin for customers. With regard to the large number of customers and a wide range of supplied items, we prefer issuance of one-time declarations on commodity origin on invoices. Elaboration of long-term declarations, frequently required by our customers, is virtually unrealizable for us due to the impossibility to guarantee for a longer period same origin of supplied items of business commodities in advance. We believe you will understand this reason and that majority of you will not be affected negatively.
At the same we would like to ask you to submit your requirements for the provision of proof of commodity origin together with your order. We are able to deal with additional requirements as well, but outside commonly used SW it is more laborious and longer for us.
3.1 Responsibility for declaration at sale
It is not stipulated for declarations related to supplies both within EU and outside EU that these should be signed by statutory representatives or employees with full powers for this, which means that they can be signed by individual sellers.
In compliance with the Council Regulation (EC) No. 1207/2001 “However, where the invoice and supplier's declaration are drawn up by computer, the declaration need not be signed in manuscript provided that the supplier gives the client a written undertaking accepting complete responsibility for every supplier's declaration which identifies him as if it had been signed in manuscript by him.” FERONA Slovakia, a.s. does not sign the one-time declarations on invoice and states the following clause on taking the full responsibility in a purchase contract:
“FERONA Slovakia, a.s. undertakes to the purchaser that it takes over the full responsibility for each declaration on commodity origin, where its business name is stated, such as it was signed in manuscript by an authorized representative of the company. This undertaking if passed pursuant to the Council Regulation (EC) No.1207/2001, art. 5, sec.3.”
3.2 One-time declaration on origin of commodity for Slovakia and EU countries
If the customer requires the attestation of the commodity origin, the sales assistant provides in the IS that following text is printed on the invoice:
D E C L A R A T I O N
I, bellow signed, hereby declare that commodities stated on this document come from the country stated at each item in the field "Country of origin" and meets requirements for origin, by which the referential business with EEC, IS, LI, NO, CH, BG, HR, MK, RO, XC, XL, FO, CL, MX, IL, PS, ACP, OCT, TN, DZ, MA, EG, JO, LB, SY, AL, BA, XK, XM, XS, GSP, AD, TR, ZA is governed.
I hereby declare that
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I hereby undertake to provide to customs authorities all other supporting documents that might be required.
If the customer requires to stated in the purchase contract that the subject of agreement is provision of origin attestation, the sales assistant provides in IS that following text is printed on the purchase contract:
„Customer requires commodity origin attestation.“
I hereby declare that