On 15 June 2017, the WTO announced that WTO members and the general public are now able to directly access members’ legislation and practices related to rules of origin as a result of changes made in the WTO’s rules of origin webpage. The revised webpage also contains updated information on the current work of the WTO’s Committee on Rules of Origin.
With the multiplication of regional trade agreements, an increasing number of countries apply a variety of different sets of preferential rules of origin. In addition, a growing number of WTO members have also introduced non-preferential origin requirements. As a result, there is growing demand for transparency and a better understanding of these requirements.
To simplify and centralise access to such requirements, notifications received by the WTO Secretariat regarding members’ preferential and non-preferential rules of origin are now directly accessible via the revised webpage. For non-preferential rules of origin, a scroll-down menu allows users to quickly check which WTO members apply or do not apply non-preferential rules of origin and, in the case of the former, to access details on their relevant rules.
For preferential rules of origin, details can be retrieved through the WTO Preferential Trade Agreements database and the WTO’s Regional Trade Agreements Information System.
The revised webpage on rules of origin also contains new features, such as streamlined menus and centralized information, documents for meetings, links to relevant disputes, and information on technical assistance. In addition, the content has been updated to reflect the current work of the WTO’s Committee on Rules of Origin.
