Issuance of Preferential Certificate of Origin for India’s exports to Thailand and Vietnam under ASEAN-India FTA

Circular No. ES/151/2020-21 23rd May, 2020

To : Members of the Council

Sub: Issuance of Preferential Certificate of Origin for India’s exports to Thailand and Vietnam under ASEAN-India FTA

Dear Member,

O/o DGFT has issued Trade Notice No.12/2020-21 dated 22nd May, 2020 clarifying about the issuance of Preferential Certificate of Origin for India’s exports to Thailand and Vietnam under ASEAN-India FTA.

It is informed that Trade Notice 01/2020-2021 dated 7th April, 2020 was issued 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 Certificates of Origin (CoO). Further, to this various representations have been received from exporters expressing difficulties in obtaining preferential access in Thailand and Vietnam based on the digitally signed electronic Certificates of Origin.

In view of the above, DGFT has now decided the following -

The earlier procedure of issuing a physical copy of CoO by the designated agencies for exports to Thailand and Vietnam under ASEAN-India FTA is being restored.
The CoO applications under ASEAN-India FTA for exports to Thailand and Vietnam should now be submitted manually by the exporters to the offices of the designated issuing agencies i.e. EIA, MPEDA and Textile Committee.
The e-platform (coo.dgft.gov.in) will not accept CoO applications submitted for exports destined to Thailand and Vietnam. However, the e-platform shall continue to accept and process CoO applications for export to other countries under ASEAN-India FTA.
Henceforth, these agencies (EIA, MPEDA and Textile Committee) will issue the Certificate of Origin in physical paper format as was being done before issuance of Trade Notice 01/2020-21 dated 07.04.2020 for Thailand and Vietnam, till further notice.