CETA Origin Declaration

Canada Border Services Agency has confirmed that the statement “CANADA/EU or CM must appear on the “origin declaration”.  Nothing else is acceptable (please refer to footnote to field 3).

The purpose of the origin declaration is to certify that the goods are of CETA preferential origin.  Simply stating “EU preferential origin” is akin to a Canadian exporter stating “Canada preferential origin”, which would be meaningless as there is no indication that the relevant products meet the Canada-EU CETA rule of origin.  Consequently, originating goods are not “EU preferential origin” (as this could mean that they meet the requirements of any FTA that the EU has), but rather “Canada/EU” (or “CM”) origin as they need to meet the particular rules of origin for the Canada-EU CETA.

The CETA negotiators sought to make this requirement as simple as possible and it is important for exporters to understand that their declaration pertains to this particular trade agreement.  The alternative would be the much more burdensome certificate of origin with the trade agreement printed on it.  The CETA declaration, however, was an attempt by negotiators to make things easier for the trading community.  As a result, two simple sentences are all that is being asked under CETA.