Origin · Decision tree

Country of origin determination wizard

Pick the right origin criterion before the certificate is issued.

The wrong origin criterion on a certificate of origin is the single most common reason a preferential claim collapses under Customs verification. Wholly-obtained, CTC, and RVC are not interchangeable, and naming the wrong one voids the preference even when the goods would have qualified under the correct rule. The fix is to determine the criterion before the certificate goes out, not after the audit.

Walk a decision tree against the product and its inputs; the tool returns the right origin criterion (wholly-obtained, change-in-tariff-classification, or regional-value-content) to declare on the certificate.

Last updated 2026-05-09. Math runs in your browser, no data leaves your computer.

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General guidance only. Verify against the cited primary sources before you commit to a shipment, declaration, or contract.

Origin rules in chemical-trade context

For chemical exports out of China, almost every shipment qualifies as originating in China under at least one of the standard rules. Wholly obtained applies to mined or harvested raw materials (Chinese rock salt, Chinese phosphate ore). CTH or CTSH applies when chemical synthesis on Chinese soil changes the HS classification of the inputs. RVC40 applies as a fallback when CTC does not, since chemical synthesis adds significant value to inputs.

The hard cases are processed-but-not-transformed goods (re-bottling, simple repackaging, blending of identical streams). These rarely confer origin; the goods retain the origin of their dominant input. For example, importing 99.9% pure citric acid into China and packing it into 25 kg bags does not make the citric acid Chinese-origin; the original supplier country origin sticks. Customs at destination is alert to "transhipment laundering" patterns; misdeclaring origin to dodge anti-dumping duties or Section 301 tariffs is a customs fraud offence with serious penalties.

A worked example

The booking. You re-bottle 99.9% pure citric acid imported from a non-Chinese supplier into 25 kg bags at your plant in Jiangsu, and you mark the certificate of origin as Chinese because the bagging happened in China.

The failure. It won't stand. Repackaging is not a substantial transformation, the HS code never changes, and the value the bagging adds is far below 40%. The citric acid keeps the origin of the supplier country. If that country is under an anti-dumping order, declaring Chinese origin to dodge it is transhipment laundering, a customs fraud offence, not a paperwork slip.

The fix. Walk the tree honestly. Repackaging fails wholly-obtained, fails the change-in-tariff test, and fails RVC40, so the correct criterion is the supplier country's origin, not China's. Declare it accurately, pay the duty that applies, and the shipment clears without an enforcement file opening.

Once you know the criterion, the ChAFTA preference calculator runs the full RVC and change-in-tariff math at /tools/compliance-and-risk/chafta-preference-calculator.

Issuing a non-preferential certificate? The generic certificate of origin generator builds it at /tools/documentation/generic-certificate-of-origin-generator.

Frequently asked

What is "country of origin"?

The country where the goods are deemed to have been produced, for customs valuation and tariff purposes. Most jurisdictions follow either wholly obtained rules or substantial transformation rules to determine origin when production touches multiple countries.

Why does origin matter even without an FTA?

Customs at the destination uses origin to apply MFN tariff schedules, anti-dumping duties (often country-specific), trade remedies (e.g. US Section 301 tariffs on Chinese-origin goods), import quotas, and safeguard measures. Misdeclaring origin to dodge these is a customs fraud offence.

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