Summary:  

The Bandar Abbas Chamber (Iran), Los Angeles Area Chamber (United States), sixteen New Zealand Chambers, and thirty-one Irish Chamber now will benefit from the use of ICC’s internationally-recognized Certificate of origin (CO) label with their newly established International status as accredited members of the Certificate of origin chain which was virtually approved by forty-seven CO experts from thirty-two countries in a CO council meeting.

Content:  

The ICC WCF International Certificate of Origin Accreditation Chain (CO Chain) was created in September 2012 based on international guidelines to which chambers can adhere on a voluntary basis. It represents ICC WCFs commitment in its push for global harmonization in the issuing process of COs.

The outcomes of the signing by the chambers are the implementation of the transparent and accountable verification procedures and the commitment to the highest level of quality. This CO will enable the chambers to present their credibility and integrity as competent third parties while giving them the idiosyncratic International level of quality.

There are two types of COs that chambers can issue:

• Non-Preferential COs certify that the goods are subject to no preferential treatment. These are the main type of COs that chambers can issue and are also known as “Normal COs”.
• Preferential COs, which certify that goods are subject to reduced tariffs or exemptions when they are exported to countries extending these privileges. These COs tend to be closely associated with Regional Trade Agreements.

There are 5 reasons to join the CO chain as specified by ICC.

These are the following :

1)    Global Harmonized standard

2)    International Recognition

3)    Security

4)    Global Network

5)    Better Business

For the benefit of this kind, the CO chain now comprises 733 chambers across the world which was established recently in 2012 by ICC’s WCF. Together, this network of chambers issues more than 8.5 million COs a year, with the official ICC WCF Label, adhering to the universal certification standards, ICC WCF International CO Guidelines, to issue trade documents in their respective countries.

With their newly established status as accredited members of the CO Chain, the Bandar Abbas Chamber (Iran) Los Angeles Area Chamber (United States), 16 New Zealand Chambers, and 31 Irish Chambers now benefit from the use of ICC’s internationally recognized CO label.

Chaired by Martin Van der Weide, Deputy Chair of the ICC WCF International Certificate of Origin Council and Policy Manager on Origin of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce, the diverse group discussed the increase in usage of the CO verification website in 2020, which stemmed from an uptick in fake documentation to obscure the origin of counterfeit products due to the global health crisis. The site drew more than 176,000 users, compared with just 60,000 users in 2019.

The Council also discussed launching guidance around the use of dual systems, self-certification, and preferential COs, in Free Trade Agreements, and the development of a new ICC trade service for chambers, which aims to give increased credibility to invoice declarations made by an exporter in the framework of self-certification.

The meeting concluded with an exchange of information among members, regarding trade regulation around the world. Roman Bruehwiler, Senior Adviser of the Swiss Federal Customs Administration in the Free Trade and Customs Agreements section, presented an update on the revision of the Kyoto Convention.

Pic Source: ICC

Article Source: ICC

ICC WCF announces Certificate of Origin Accreditation Chain expansion