Understanding Chinese Rules of Origin to Lower Costs and Ensure Compliance

(World Trade Interactive – Zhaokang Jiang)

Companies doing business in China can lower the costs of cross-border trade and avoid compliance risks by ensuring that they have a sound understanding of China’s preferential and non-preferential rules of origin. Zhaokang Jiang, head of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg’s Beijing office, offers the following guidance on this important topic.

There are two types of rules of origin: one applies to most-favored-nation trade (non-preferential ROO) and the other applies to imports under bilateral and regional trade agreements or unilateral preference programs. The World Trade Organization does not have an agreement on product-specific and detailed ROO, and international trade is governed by national laws and bilateral and multilateral international agreements. Read more here.