TIRANA, Sept. 8/ATA/ The General Directorate of Customs announced on Wednesday that, as of September 1, 2021, Albania is the first country in the region to start implementing the transitional rules of origin of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, as alternative rules with the EU and EFTA countries ( based on Decision 1/2021).
The new rules will facilitate and further develop the mutual trade between the countries participating in the Convention with which our country implements a free trade agreement, as: They are simpler and more flexible; Allow the continuation of the application of diagonal cumulation; Provides for the implementation of full cumulation of origin (excluding textiles); For textile products (chapters 50-63 of the commodity nomenclature) only full bilateral cumulation is allowed, for example EU-Albania.
In the light of full cumulation of origin, great favour has been done to the CEFTA countries, as all the Balkan countries are considered as one country.
With regard to textiles, the processes that can be carried out in different CEFTA countries are considered to have been carried out in one country and then to be exported to another country once the full bilateral cumulation rule is met; The rule of return of customs duties (with the exception of textiles); This means that non-originating materials used for the production of originating products which are exported under the inward processing customs procedure, no customs duty is paid; The rule of tolerance has quite positive changes for operators, as the threshold for the possibility of using non-originating products increases from 10% to 15%.
There are also new advantages in certificates of origin, as the EUR MED certificate and the EUR MED Declaration of Origin are removed, simplifying the procedures and the validity of proof of origin from 4 months to 10 months.
Regarding the implementation of these rules with CEFTA countries and Turkey, we are waiting for the closure of internal procedures of CEFTA countries after Albania has ratified the decision 1/2021, while with Turkey we expect this decision to be approved by both parties. //a.i/
