Trade Update 17

Foreign Trade Update
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recently undertaken the following foreign trade measures.

A. Electronic filing and issuance of Preferential Certificate of Origin for India’s Exports under several Free Trade Agreements w.e.f. April 7, 2020

Vide Trade Notice No. 01/2020-2021 dated April 7, 2020, the online platform that is currently used to issue Certificates of Origin (CoO) for exports to Nepal under South Asian Free Trade Area & SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement, exports from India to Chile under India-Chile Preferential Trade Agreement and exports to Korea under India- Korea Comprehensive
Economic Partnership Agreement (the platform URL: https://coo.dgft.gov.in), can now be used to issue CoO for exports to other countries under the following Free Trade Agreements/
Preferential Trade Agreements with effect from April 7, 2020:
1. Exports under ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement to Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam;
2. Exports under India- Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to Japan;
3. Exports under SAARC Preferential Trading Agreement to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. (already live for Nepal);
4. Exports under South Asian Free Trade Area Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (already live for Nepal);
5. Exports under Asia Pacific Trade Agreement to Bangladesh, China, Lao, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka;
6. Exports under India- Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement to Sri Lanka.

The following are the important components of the process:
1. The application must be made through the platform URL: https://coo.dgft.gov.in.
2. A Digital Signature Certificate (Class II or Class III, with the IEC number of the firm embedded) would be required for the purpose of electronic verification and must be the
same as in other DGFT applications.
3. On registration at the portal, a password would be sent on the email of the IEC holder. In case the IEC holder desires to update the email on which communication is to be done
with the portal, the same may be done by using the ‘Online IEC application’ module on the DGFT website.
4. Once registration is done, all directors’/partners’ details and branch details would be autopopulated in the CoO as available in the DGFTIEC database. It is relevant to ensure that
the updated IEC details are available in the DGFT system and necessary steps are taken to modify the IEC details online, whenever required.