A new ammendment in EU's GSP by the DGFT
The Dollar Business Bureau
Earlier in the 2nd week of Dec the Ministry of Commerce had floated a new provision for exporters exporting to the EU called 'self registration'. Under this provision an exporter can self certify the rules of origin of his product under the Registered Export System (REX) which would be in place from Jan 1, 2017.
Exporters with a REX number will be able to self certify the Statement on Origin of their goods being exported to EU under the GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) Scheme. The registration on REX is without any fee or charges and this system would eventually phase out the current system of issuance of Certificates of Origin, which was a process that was plagued with delays.
The phasing out of the current system of issuance of Certificates of Origin (Form-A) would be done by the Competent Authorities within a year starting from Jan 1, 2017 to Jan 1, 2018.
The DGFT has released via notification no., 51/ 92015-2020) dtd Dec 30, 2016, the details of the Registered Exporters System (REX) as of January 1, 2017 for the EU's GSP. Some of the important points in the REX are reproduced below from the notification, for better understanding of the exporters.
1. Under the new scheme of self-certification, being introduced from 1.1.2017, the current system of issuance of certificates of origin (Form-A) by competent authorities as listed in Appendix 2C of Foreign Trade Policy (2015-20) will be replaced with “statements on origin” to be issued by exporters themselves.
2. This “statement on origin” is to be made out on, on any commercial document (such as commercial invoice etc.) of the exported consignment. However, during the transition period of twelve months from 1.1.2017 until 31.12.2017, the competent authorities [as listed in Appendix 2C of the FTP (2015-20)] would continue to issue certificates of origin (Form A) at the request of exporters who are not registered in the REX system.
3. At the end of this period, i.e. from 1.1.2018 onwards, the consignments above the value of € 6000 will be entitled to GSP preferential tariff treatment, only if accompanied by a statement on origin made out by a registered exporter.
4. Exporters consigning low value goods (i.e. less than €6000 per consignment) are however entitled to make out statements on origin without being registered in REX, instead of submitting “Form- A” from 1.1.2017 itself.
5. As exporters are in the best position to assess the origin of their products, the European Union considers it appropriate that the exporters directly provide their customers in the EU with ‘statements on origin’ that no longer need to be endorsed by their national authorities. For this purpose, exporters will need to be registered by the competent authorities in an electronic system, named the REX system, or the. ‘Registered Exporter System’.
6. The competent authorities would have access to the REX system for registration of exporters as well as access to relevant information. The registration of exporters in the system will not require any fees.
7. An exporter will be registered in the system only once and the REX system will be common to the GSP schemes of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey (based on Turkey fulfilling certain conditions).
8. The REX is a composite system relating to both registration of exporters and all other aspects related to the self-certification of the rules of origin under the EU GSP.
9. The rules of the REX system are laid down in European Commission’s Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2015/2447 [the Union Customs Code (UCC) "Implementing Act"(IA)]. The details on the REX system are available at the following URL:
10. While the REX system will come into operation on 1.1.2017 and exporters will be able to submit their applications for registration under REX w.e.f 1.1.2017, the registration on the REX System will only be done when EU operationalizes the system and gives access to the system to competent authorities in India.
11. Exporters may submit their applications to the competent authorities as listed in Annexure 1(b) who will receive such applications, verify the details therein and if accepted, these applications will be registered on the REX once their access to REX is permitted. Upon registration with REX, they will intimate the REX registration number and it’s validity date to the exporters through email and a communication at the address indicated in the application form.
to success.