Seeking details of manually issued Certificates of Origin in contravention of DGFT guidelines - DGFT - Trade Notice No. 28/2024-25

Government of India Ministry of Commerce and Industry Department of Commerce Directorate General of Foreign Trade Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi Date: 11th February 2025 Trade Notice No. 28/2024-25 , 1. All Exporters/Members of Trade Industry 2. All Agencies / Chamber enlisted under FTP 3. All Export Promotion Councils / Trade and Industry Associations 4. All DGFT Regional Authorities Subject: Seeking details of manually issued Certificates of Origin in contravention of DGFT guidelines -reg. Reference is drawn to DGFT Trade Notices No. 36/2023-2024 dated 26th December 2023 and Trade Notice No. 24/2024-25 dated 20.12.2024 which enabled electronic issuance of Certificates of Origin by all authorised agencies via eCoO 2.0 platform (i.e. https://www.trade.gov.in). 2. Reports have been received by this Directorate that some agencies continue to issue manual Certificates of Origin despite the above Trade Notices mandating electronic issuance via Trade Connect ePlatform after provision of an extended transition time to the agencies to comply with the new requirements. 3. In light of the above, the following maybe noted by all concerned: a. All exporters are advised not to accept any manually issued Certificate of Origin after the deadlines mentioned in the above referenced Trade Notices and any such manual certificates issued will be considered null and void. b. It may be noted that Trade and Customs authorities of all partner countries are being informed by Indian Missions abroad about the above mandates. Hence, manual certificates issued in contravention to the guidelines are liable to be rejected by Customs authorities of the recipient countries. c. It is also requested that information on such contraventions may be brought to the notice of this directorate by reporting such instances on [email protected]. 4. Issuing agencies may note that suitable action including removal of the agencies from the list of authorised agencies for issuance of CoO will follow if agencies continue to violate the said guidelines and issue CoOs outside of the Trade Connect ePlatform. This is issued with the approval of the competent authority. (K.V. Tirumala) Joint DGFT e-mail: [email protected] (Issued from File No. 01/02/82/AM-19/EDI-Part(1))