The evaluation of new Rules of Origin approach comes in the wake of Asean's rejection of India's general approach towards its various FTAs, on grounds of lack of consistency in the criterion adopted for domestic value addition; inability to recognise China's endorsement of the norms set out by the Asean and the complications in the minimum qualifying operations to confer origin status, Ramanan told in an interactive session on 'Rules of Origin issues in India-Asean FTA', organised by Ficci in cooperation with the ministry and various industry associations and export promotion councils.

Rules of Origin are the criteria that determine the country of origin of a product. Tariff concessions under the FTA are available only if the products satisfy the ROO, as agreed between the member countries of FTA.

Ramanan said, India was following the 'twin criteria' as the general approach of ROO. This involves two methods to determine the origin of the product. One is value addition, under which a minimum percentage of total value addition should be achieved with the help of domestic inputs.

The second method is change in tariff heading (CTH), under which origin is granted if the exported product falls into a different tariff heading (four-digit level of HS classification) to any imported input used in its production.

This approach is used in the most of preferential trade agreements and features in both EU agreements and the Nafta.