Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has reiterated that all Certificates of Origin (CoO) must be issued electronically through the eCoO 2.0 platform on Trade Connect. Despite prior notices (Trade Notice No. 36/2023-24 and Trade Notice No. 24/2024-25), some agencies continue to issue manual CoOs.
Exporters are advised not to accept manually issued CoOs beyond the specified deadlines, as such documents will be considered invalid. Additionally, Indian Missions abroad are informing trade and customs authorities of partner countries, making non-compliant CoOs subject to rejection by customs.
Any violations should be reported to DGFT via tradeconnect-dgft@gov.in. Agencies found issuing manual CoOs in contravention of the guidelines risk removal from the list of authorized issuers.
Government of India
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Department of Commerce
Directorate General of Foreign Trade
Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi
Trade Notice No. 28/2024-25- DGFT | Dated: 11th February 2025
To,
1. All Exporters/Members of Trade & Industry
2. All Agencies / Chamber enlisted under FTP
3. All Export Promotion Councils / Trade and Industry Associations
4. All DGFT Regional Authorities
Subject: Seeking details of manually issued Certificates of Origin in contravention of DGFT guidelines-reg.
Reference is drawn to DGFT Trade Notices No. 36/2023-2024 dated 26th December 2023 and Trade Notice No. 24/2024-25 dated 20.12.2024 which enabled electronic issuance of Certificates of Origin by all authorised agencies via eCoO 2.0 platform (i.e. https://www.trade.gov.in).
2. Reports have been received by this Directorate that some agencies continue to issue manual Certificates of Origin despite the above Trade Notices mandating electronic issuance via Trade Connect ePlatform after provision of an extended transition time to the agencies to comply with the new requirements.
3. In light of the above, the following maybe noted by all concerned:
a. All exporters are advised not to accept any manually issued Certificate of Origin after the deadlines mentioned in the above referenced Trade Notices and any such manual certificates issued will be considered null and void.
b. It may be noted that Trade and Customs authorities of all partner countries are being informed by Indian Missions abroad about the above mandates. Hence, manual certificates issued in contravention to the guidelines are liable to be rejected by Customs authorities of the recipient countries.
c. It is also requested that information on such contraventions may be brought to the notice of this directorate by reporting such instances on tradeconnect-dgft@gov.in.
4. Issuing agencies may note that suitable action including removal of the agencies from the list of authorised agencies for issuance of CoO will follow if agencies continue to violate the said guidelines and issue CoOs outside of the Trade Connect ePlatform.
This is issued with the approval of the competent authority.
(K.V. Tirumala) Joint DGFT
e-mail: tirumala.kv@nic.in
(Issued from File No. 01/02/82/AM-19/EDI-Part)
