With the integration of the world economy and the internationalization of production, it is more important to accurately identify the nationality of import and export goods. Because it determines the nationality of imported goods, it directly determines the tariff and non tariff treatment applicable to the import country according to the trade policy of the importing country. The difference of origin determines the treatment of imported goods is different.

First, the meaning of rules of origin

In order to meet the needs of international trade and to implement discriminatory trade measures in respect of tariff and non tariff, countries must identify the origin of import and export commodities. To this end, countries in the form of the national law to develop its identification of goods "nationality" standards, which is the rule of origin.

The rules of origin agreement of the World Trade Organization defines the rule of origin as a universal law, regulation and administrative decision for the determination of the origin of goods in a country (region).

Two. Categories of rules of origin

For the purposes of application, the rules of origin are divided into two categories: preferential rules of origin, and non preferential rules of origin.

(1) preferential rules of origin

Preferential rules of origin refers to a country's laws and regulations in order to implement the national preferential policies and development, is a preferential trade agreement through bilateral and multilateral agreements or is formulated by their own form of some special criteria of origin, so also known as the agreement on rules of origin. Preferential rules of origin are highly exclusive. The preferential scope is limited to the imported products of the beneficiary country (region), and the purpose is to promote the development of trade between the parties. Preferential rules of origin are mainly implemented in the following two ways: one is granted by autonomous means, such as the European Union GSP (GSP) and China's preferential tariff treatment to the least developed countries;. Two is awarded by mutual agreement, such as NAFTA, CAFTA and so on. Because preferential rules of origin are used to determine whether imported goods are eligible for more preferential treatment than MFN, the standard of identification is usually non optimal

The rules of origin are different, and its width or strictness depends entirely on the members. In order to prevent such preferential measures from being abused or avoided, import countries (regions) have formulated the provisions of direct freight transport.

China's accession to the world trade organization, in order to further improve the trade environment, promoting the market diversification process, open innovation pattern, as of March 2011, has signed the "Asia Pacific Trade Agreement" (the original "Asia Pacific Economic and Social Council in the development of the member countries on trade negotiations first agreement", also known as "Bangkok agreement"), "People's Republic of China and ASEAN comprehensive economic cooperation framework agreement" (hereinafter referred to as the "Cooperation Framework Agreement" Chinese ASEAN), the "mainland and Hongkong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement" (also known as Hongkong CEPA), the "mainland and Macao closer economic Partnership Arrangement" (also known as Macao CEPA), "the People's Republic of China government and the government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan free trade agreement", to Ethiopia The least developed countries in Asia to give special preferential tariff treatment (hereinafter referred to as the least developed countries the special preferential tariff treatment), "People's Republic of China and the government of Republic of Chile free trade agreement", "the People's Republic of China government and the government of New Zealand Free Trade Agreement", "the People's Republic of China government and the government of Republic of Singapore free trade agreement", "People's Republic of China government and Republic of Peru government free trade agreement", "Cross Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement" (ECFA) and other preferential trade agreements. The preferential trade agreements contain corresponding preferential rules of origin.

The trade agreement, "Asia Pacific Trade Agreement" for countries including South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Laos; "Cooperation Framework Agreement" Chinese ASEAN countries including Vietnam, Thailand, for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Burma, Laos, Kampuchea and Philippines.

(two) non preferential rules of origin

Non preferential rules of origin are enacted by national legislation independently of the requirements of the customs tariff and other trade measures adopted by a country, and therefore are also known as autonomous rules of origin. In accordance with the provisions of the world trade organization, the rules of origin for non preferential trade policy measures, the implementation must abide by the principle of MFN treatment, which must be universal, blanketly applied to all imported goods as origin of mfn. It includes the implementation of most favored nation treatment, anti-dumping and countervailing duties, safeguard measures, quantity restrictions or tariff quotas, origin marks or trade statistics, and the rules of origin adopted in government procurement. (WTO coordination and harmonization of non preferential rules of origin "are unified and coordinated, after the completion of the members of the world trade organization will implement a unified non preferential rules of origin, instead of setting their own non preferential rules of origin.