Italy - Obtain a Certificate of Origin

Advertisement

Procedure

Certificates of origin are documents attesting the origin of goods, for commercial and customs purposes. The request must be filled by the applicant (either in Italian or in one of the European Union languages) in suitable forms (made up of the application, the original copy, that will be given back, and a copy of the certificate), and be sent to the Chamber of Commerce in whose ambit goods are produced, or where the registered office is established and the applicant elected its domicile.

Before a Form A is issued the authorities in your country should verify that everything is in order and that the goods concerned are originating ones. But there are also regulations governing the operation of the EU GSP which require the Customs Authorities in the importing Member State of the European Union to ask the authorities in the exporting country to carry out further checks from time to time on goods which have already been exported to the European Union under the GSP. If these post-exportation, or subsequent (a posteriori in French), verification checks show that your goods did not satisfy the rules of origin, then your customer in the European Union will have to pay customs duty at the full (non-preferential)rate. If this happens you could be faced with claims for compensation or even with nonpayment for the goods supplied. You may even lose future business, as customers will not want to run the risk of receiving further unexpected duty demands for goods they have purchased from you.

It is therefore in your own interest to MAKE SURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THE ORIGIN RULES, AND APPLY THEM CORRECTLY.

In order to allow the Chamber of Commerce to carry out an assessment activity preliminary to the issuing of the certificate, applications in case of goods entirely manufactured in Italy shall indicate, on the back side, the place of manufacturing and the name of manufacturer (or the business name of the company).

In case goods that were manufactured in Italy underwent processing in the Italian territory sufficient to ascribe an Italian origin to them, the name of the operator that made the last processing and the address of either the factory or the laboratory where it occurred must be indicated. A copy of the export invoice must be produced, together with the request of certificate, the final destination of the goods or of customer, should the shipment be carried out on behalf of third parties or envisage a stopover.

Advertisement

Required Documents

• A copy of the export invoice
• The request of certificate

Office Locations & Contacts

Rome Chamber of Commerce

Regional Union of the Chambers of Commerce of Abruzzo (Abruzzo Unioncamere)

Please select the offices in your region under Your Chamber of Commerce by clicking the following link Italian Chambers of Commerce

Eligibility

To qualify for preferences, products must:

• fall within a description of products eligible for preferences in the country of destination. The description entered on the form must be sufficiently detailed to enable the products to be identified by the customs officer examining them;
• comply with the rules of origin of the country of destination. Each article in a consignment must qualify separately in its own right; and
• comply with the consignment conditions specified by the country of destination. In general, products must be consigned direct from the country of exportation to the country of destination but most preference-giving countries accept passage through intermediate countries subject to certain conditions. (For Australia, direct consignment is not necessary.)

Fees

Explain the fees structure which is required for obtaining the certificate/document.

Validity

It is valid for 10 months only from the date of issue in the exporting country. They must be presented within this period to the customs authorities of the importing country.

Documents to Use

GSP Form A

Sample Documents

GSP Form A

Processing Time

Please explain processing time taken in obtaining the document/certificate.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications. 
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type="website">video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the "&" inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver, 
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M" Video ID is "Y0US7oR_t3M". 
	

Instructions

The country of origin is the country where the goods are grown, produced or manufactured. The manufactured goods must have been substantially transformed in the exporting country as the country of origin, to their present form ready for export. Certain operations such as packaging, splitting and sorting may not be considered as sufficient operations to confer origin.

The certificate of origin includes the Form A, Chamber of Commerce Certificate of Origin, Exporter's Certificate of Origin, and Free Trade Market Certificate of Origin. The trade agreement, import practice, and letter of credit (L/C) stipulation determine the type of C/O needed.

Required Information

• Goods consigned from (Exporter's business name, address, country)
• Goods consigned to (Consignee's name, address, country)
• Means of transport and route (as far as known)
• Place of Issue
• Item Number
• Marks and number of packages
• Number and kind of packages, description of goods
• Origin criterion
• Gross weight or other quantity
• Number and date of invoices
• Declaration by the exporter
• Certification
• Importing country
• Place and date, signature of authorized signatory
• Place and date, signature and stamp of certifying authority

Need for the Document

The certificate of origin is a document certifying the country in which the product was manufactured, and in certain cases may include such information as the local material and labor contents of the product. The certificate of origin includes the Form A, Chamber of Commerce Certificate of Origin, Exporter's Certificate of Origin, and Free Trade Market Certificate of Origin. The trade agreement, import practice, and letter of credit (L/C) stipulation determine the type of C/O needed. Some importing countries require a certificate of origin to establish whether or not a preferential duty rate is applicable. A popular example of the certificate of origin is the Form A, which is often called the GSP Form A. The certificate of origin (C/O) is an alternative to the declaration or the certification and/or legalization of the commercial invoice. The C/O is based on the rules of the country of origin.

Information which might help

The importer or the importing country may require a specific certificate of origin (C/O) form issued by a Chamber of Commerce in the exporting country.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

In short a Certificate of Origin (CO) is a document which is used for certification that the products exported are wholly obtained, produced or manufactured in a particular Country. It is generally an integral part of export documents.

External Links

http://www.chamberofcommerce.it/inglese/chisiamo2-.asp

http://www.chamberofcommerce.it/inglese/info-ass-.asp

http://www.unioncamereabruzzo.it/index.php?action=chisiamo

Others

The EU's "Generalised Scheme of Preferences" (GSP) allows developing country exporters to pay less or no duties on their exports to the EU. This gives them vital access to EU markets and contributes to their economic growth.