Digital standard for Proof of Origin declarations

Proof of origin declarations are made by suppliers to provide customers with the information needed to prove their eligibility for preferential rates of duty when exporting their goods to other countries. Although there is a standard format for such declarations there has been no standard way of transmitting the information. Until now.

In order to determine or prove preferential origin, manufacturers of exported goods usually require declarations from their upstream suppliers which confirm the origin of supplied materials which are incorporated in the exported product. Companies in the automotive industry normally use long-term declarations (LTD) covering a period of time (max 2 years) but they often use solutions from different software providers to request, create and issue such declarations and to determine, document and process the preferential origin of goods. The information transmitted can therefore often only be transferred to the IT systems of the recipients after time-consuming reformatting or conversion. In addition, the use of post or e-mail to send supplier declarations is still widespread leading to further disruptions and inefficiencies.

The latest Odette recommendation Suppliers Long Term Declaration with EDI (OM47) provides a digital standard for the exchange of long-term suppliers’ declarations that is applicable throughout the industry. This will reduce the effort required to create, send and process the origin information and will enable automated integration of the origin information without discontinuity.

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