Guest entry by Piotr R. Gajos, a Product Assessment Specialist of RiskCE
I’d like to thank my colleagues from www.ExamineChina.com for inviting me to post a few entries on the “CE marking” topic. I liked the idea even more because of a mystery this topic still poses for a lot of people, which in case of importing goods from China can put a company at risk of huge expenses and troubles with an unwanted product.
Along with the rise of the China’s due diligence, the requirement of providing CE certificate has become ubiquitous. But to the surprise of many companies importing from China, CE certificate has some limitations, and even if it was confirmed by the issuing agency, it does not necessary guarantee the quality of imported products. What should we remember to avoid problems?
We have already started a cycle of blog posts entitled “Glossary of terms”. This time we will describe CE mark, its usage and the most common problems.
The knowledge of the most important terms used in international trade is crucial for mutual understanding. We will present the most common international trade terms accompanied with the detailed definition.
What is the Certificate of Origin?
Generally speaking, it is a document, which proves that the goods in a particular export shipment have been wholly obtained, produced, manufactured or processed in a particular country. The name can be abbreviated to C/O or COO. The origin of goods is important for tax and tariff authorities (for example duty is applicable in the case of buying goods in country A, but not in country B). While a lot of Chinese products are exempted from duty, there are still some categories in which the EU uses duty as a market protection tool.
