Country of Origin Certification Rules

The objective of this project was to increase public awareness and understanding of Georgian exporters and investors about duty-free access to EU and CIS markets.

Georgia currently has a free trade agreement with Turkey and CIS countries and enjoys benefits of the GSP+ program with EU. It creates significant opportunities for Georgian exporters to access Turkish, CIS and EU markets under preferential treatment. However, opportunities are not widely exploited due to the lack of public awareness and understanding of origination rules. The private sector has significant interest in having organized information about what kind of goods can be subject to free trade regimes and under what conditions. In this regard, PMCG in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development (MoESD) and Revenue Service at the Ministry of Finance (MoF RS) developed a plain language exporters’ guide. The guide should provide information about the procedures and processes to qualify goods as Georgian originated and receive a preferential treatment under free trade regimes. The guide is shared with major business associations and other representatives of business community in Georgia.

Within the project PMCG team has developed the guideline: “Terms and conditions to obtain Georgian origination status of goods”. The final guideincludes terms and conditions to obtain Georgian origination status of goods:

• Origination rules required for free trade agreement with CIS
• Origination rules required for free trade agreement with Turkey
• Origination rules required for GSP+ program with EU
• Application of concessional rates and terms for Goods of Georgian origin exported to Turkey, CIS and EU.

In the final stage of the project, guidelines on terms and conditions to obtain Georgian origination status of goods was introduced to the MoESD, Revenue Service and private sector.