Dear all,
Country of origin labelling is only part of the large area of rules of origin.
I had the opportunity to work on some of these, during trade talks between Morocco and EU, and Morocco and USA.
The rules are quite complex because they are not based on technical matters only, but also on political and economical matters.They raise the same questions as rules of citizenship.
Some countries are going to go for very tough rules of origin because they want to protect the label of their products against the international competition.Others will be very open towards products they do not produce and are willing to give it their "citizenship".
However, two basic principles are used. The first, called "fully obtained", will impose on a product to have all its components originating from the same country in order to get the label of that country.
The second, called "substantially processed", will accept to change the origin of a product if the raw material has been processed to some extent.
Which principle is used for which product will depend on a political decision by the importing country.
When an importing country accepts a given origin, it accepts to give it some favors like entering without paying tarifs, or not being inspected, .......
If the first principle is used, then the labelling should include all the steps and mixes that occured in the product life.Exemple : shrimp from China and Vietnam, processed in France, imported in the US by ......
If the second principle is used, the labelling might include only product of France.
Regards
najib layachi
food technologist and inspector
MOROCCO
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