A. General Information
Electronic exchange of Certificates of Origin –Korea and Taiwan province of China
B. Lessons Learned
The ECO cross-border exchange project that Taiwan province of China and Korea launched together in 2004 was the pilot project for paperless trading. It was also a public-private collaborative effort for both sides. On Nov. 21st, 2008 the Memorandum of Understanding was signed. Later on, Taiwan province of China’s customs authority announced that from Aug. 26th 2009, its system was capable of receiving, processing and exchanging ECOs across borders, and that during the initial stage it would accept ECOs for imports from Korea.
The objectives of the project were the following;
To facilitate cross border electronic transaction
To streamline customs clearance process
To help traders with ease of use e-trade application for cross border trade
To increase business opportunities
To introduce less costly, more efficient trade mechanisms between Korea and Taiwan province of China
The process is as follows;
The exporter from the Republic of Korea uses the uTradeHub (uTH) of KTNET, the web-based Republic of Korea Single Window for paperless trade, to complete the CO application form, and sends it KCCI;
KTNET sends the application to KCCI;
Once the application is received, staff at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry accesses the customs system to view the customs clearance records and clearance reference number.
KCCI, as the CO issuing/verifying authority, approves the e-CO application using its own legacy system and sends a confirmation to the exporter through KTNET;
The exporter can access the e-CO database at uTH with inquiries according to the e-CO code issued and can download the e-CO message to the legacy system.
In Taiwan Province of China: (a) The e-CO system of Trade-Van sends the importer an e-mail notification that the e-CO has been received from the exporter;
The importer reviews the e-CO via the e-CO system of Trade-Van;
The importer assigns a customs broker to arrange the import declaration and provides the broker with the shipping documents;
The customs broker reviews the shipping documents and e-CO, and then creates an EDI import declaration;
The customs broker submits the EDI import declaration to customs through Trade-Van’s network, quoting the relevant electronic e-CO reference number. The TradeVan system automatically sends the e-CO together with the import declaration to customs;
The customs officials review the declaration and clear the goods for import.
Electronic exchange of certificates of origin
Cooperation between public and private sectors
Capacity gaps among the parties
Harmonization of different legal framework
Lack of coordination mechanism
Readiness of domestic eCo application system
Readiness of digital signature law and PKI technology for secure data transmission
Domestic government’s acceptance of digitally signed electronic documents
Guarantee the authenticity of the cross border documents
Reduce percentage of fake CO
Reduce effort in paper CO verification
Speed up customs clearance process
Better service to international traders
Transmit cross border documents in a secure online environment
Singapore contributed in this project by creating the UBL ECO Standard.
Private sector companies were involved from both sides.
Korea and Taiwan province of China are in discussion to expand the service to e-INV, e-PL and e-SPS .
In discussion with other countries such as Philippines and Thailand to exchange ECO.