DGFT clarifies on CoO for exports to Vietnam under FTA

26 Jun '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) recently issued a clarification on the issuance of preferential certificate of origin (CoO) for the country’s exports to Vietnam under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India free trade agreement (FTA), saying an additional copy, i.e. electronic copy, along with the set of four copies of the certificate shall be generated.

The electronic copy shall bear the image signature of the officer and stamp of the issuing agency. Exporters may send the electronic copy to the partner country for any immediate clearance. Where required, the exporter may also collect the other set of printed certificates (in quadruplicate) duly ink-signed by the officer along with the stamp from the designated office for any subsequent submission to the partner country authorities.

The CoO applications for exports under ASEAN-India FTA to all ASEAN countries except Thailand should now be submitted through the e-COO Platform by the exporters. No physical application shall be accepted from June 22. However, manual applications submitted prior to the given date may be issued.

DGFT in May had restored the earlier procedure of issuing physical CoO copy by the designated agencies for exports to Thailand and Vietnam. This was done as exporters were facing difficulties in obtaining preferential access in Thailand and Vietnam based on the digitally-signed electronic CoO.

Earlier on April 7 this year, DGFT had issued a trade notice in view of the movement restrictions in place due to COVID-19 pandemic in India wherein, the designated agencies were enabled to issue digitally signed electronic CoO.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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