CERTIFICATE OF ORIGIN: As simple as a certificate issued by the China Export Authority certifying that the goods are of china origin, ie. That they have been made in china. 

The China Certificate of Origin used to be essential till about 5-6 years ago in order to not pay that high duties. Now adays however with the new age of lowering of tariffs and duties globally , you end up paying in majority of cases the same duties whether you have this certificate or not. 

It is however advisable to always have it just in case for mainly 2 reasons: 

a)You can many times know who is the actual factory producing the goods for you ( you can in this way bypass the exporter ).  

Though,  Dont get too excited about this. Exporters have become smart.  

As a matter of fact one of my good exporter friends in hong kong used to have a pad of about 100 signed and chopped certificate of origins in his drawer ( they are known as “Form A” ) all with the same name of manufacturer. Whether he exported lighters or dvds, the same manufacturer would appear in the buyers form a, hence they would never reach to his direct factory.  

The other side of the coin is that not all of them have those contacts to be able to do the above, and hence you can at least find out the region or town where the goods were manufactured. Many times this is enough since chinese factories are like “ant colonies”.  

Where there is one, in 2 seconds you have a million of them.  

Here is another Pearl of Advice for you: Knowing the town where one factory is can SAVE YOU TIME AND MONEY, not only in finding other sources of supply for the same item, but also in having offers to compare with.  

b)The second reason, we have really already taked about.  

The fact that for some items, there is a lower duty to be payed due to the cross-border agreements on import duties and tariffs if a Form A is presented in customs.  

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