Rules of origin

Rules of origin are the rules to attribute a country of origin to a product in order to determine its "economic nationality".^[1] The need to establish rules of origin stems from the fact that the implementation of trade policy measures, such as tariffs, quotas, trade remedies, in various cases, depends on the country of origin of the product at hand.

Rules of origin have become a challenging topic in international trade, not only because they constitute a highly technical area of rule-making, but also because their designation and application have not been harmonized across the world. The lack of harmony is even more remarkable in the era of regionalism, when more and more free trade agreements (FTAs) are concluded, creating the spaghetti bowl effect.^[2]