FTA — Certificate of Origin (CO) Advisory

Preferential duty claims under India's Free Trade Agreements (FTAs/PTAs/CECAs/CEPAs) are governed by the Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 ("CAROTAR 2020"), notified via Notification No. 81/2020-Customs (N.T.) dated 21 August 2020 under s.28DA of the Customs Act, 1962. CAROTAR 2020 supplements — it does not replace — the origin-certification procedures prescribed under each individual trade agreement, and shifts a meaningful share of the compliance burden onto the importer claiming the concession: mere possession of a Certificate of Origin (CoO) is not, by itself, sufficient to sustain a preferential duty claim.

The importer must possess, and be able to produce on request, sufficient information demonstrating that the imported goods meet the applicable origin criteria (wholly obtained, or the value-addition/tariff-shift test prescribed under the relevant agreement), and must declare — at the time of filing the Bill of Entry — the CoO reference number, its date of issuance, the specific originating criterion relied upon, and whether cumulation has been applied.

Under Rule 5, a customs officer may first seek origin-related information directly from the importer; if that information is adequate, no cross-border verification request is triggered with the exporting country's issuing authority. Rule 6 requires the importer to preserve all origin-related records for a minimum of 5 years from the date of filing the relevant Bill of Entry, for production on subsequent verification.

A Certificate of Origin is the document that proves where goods came from, and in India's free trade agreements it is the key to the preferential duty rates. Under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy, exporters claiming the benefit of an FTA must obtain a Certificate of Origin issued under the rules of origin of that agreement — proving that the goods meet the origin criteria (the value addition and processing requirements the agreement prescribes). The certificates are issued electronically through the DGFT's common platform and the authorised agencies.

The certificate is where the FTA's preferential tariff is actually claimed. A product that qualifies as originating under the agreement — because its local value addition or its processing crosses the threshold — enters the partner market at the reduced rate; one that does not, or whose certificate is defective, pays the full duty. The difference is often the difference between the deal and no deal in that market.

The cost of a wrong certificate is the duty reversal: the importing country's customs rejects the origin claim, the goods pay the full rate, and in the worst cases the exporter's origin record is questioned across future shipments. The rules of origin are technical — the value addition computation, the tariff shift, the supporting records — and they are audited by the partner customs.

This service is for exporters claiming FTA benefits. We map your products against the rules of origin of the relevant agreements, prepare the origin documentation with the value addition workings, obtain the Certificate of Origin through the authorised channels, and maintain the origin records that survive the partner customs' verification.