International Trade: Rules of Origi

"Determining the country of origin of a product is important for properly assessing tariffs,
enforcing trade remedies (such as antidumping and countervailing duties) or quantitative
restrictions (tariff quotas), and statistical purposes. Other commercial trade policies are also
linked with origin determinations, such as country of origin labeling and government
procurement regulations.

Rules of origin (ROO) can be very simple, noncontroversial tools of international trade as long as
all of the parts of a product are manufactured and assembled primarily in one country. However,
when a finished product’s component parts originate in many countries—as is often the case in
today’s global trading environment—determining origin can be a very complex, sometimes
subjective, and time-consuming process..."