Step 1: Identify the applicable trade agreement
The first question is whether the EU has a preferential trade arrangement with the country of export. If the goods come from a country with no FTA or autonomous arrangement with the EU, there is no preferential rate to claim. You are in MFN territory and origin is irrelevant for duty purposes.
The EU TARIC database is the authoritative reference. Look up the TARIC code of your product and the country of export. The database shows all applicable duty measures, including preferential rates under trade agreements. If a preferential rate exists for the import country, the agreement name is displayed alongside the rate.
Some goods are excluded from preferential treatment even under existing FTAs. Agricultural products with tariff rate quotas (TRQs), for example, require a separate quota licence and the preference only applies within the quota. TARIC shows these conditions explicitly.
Step 2: Locate the product-specific rule
Once you have confirmed that a preferential rate exists, you need the product-specific rule (PSR) for your product under that agreement. The PSR defines what level of production in the exporting country is required to confer originating status.
PSRs are found in the origin protocol or origin annex of the relevant agreement. These are publicly available documents. The easiest way to access them is through the European Commission's trade agreement pages or directly through EUR-Lex, where the full text of each agreement is published.
PSRs are organised by HS chapter and heading. Find the chapter corresponding to your product's HS classification and locate the specific rule for your heading or subheading. Rules are expressed using standard abbreviations: CTH means change of tariff heading, CTSH means change of tariff subheading, CC means change of chapter, MaxNOM means maximum non-originating material content.
Applying tariff heading change rules
A CTH rule requires that all non-originating materials used in the production of the finished product are classified under a different HS heading than the finished product itself. "Different heading" means a different four-digit HS code.
Example: a finished bicycle is classified under HS heading 8712. The PSR for bicycles under the EU-Japan EPA requires CTH, meaning all non-originating materials must be classified outside heading 8712. If you source non-originating bicycle frames (also 8712) from a third country, the CTH rule is not met, because the frame and the finished bicycle have the same heading.
However, if you source non-originating steel tubes (HS 7306) and manufacture the frames yourself in Japan, the tubes change heading from 7306 to 8712 during production. The CTH rule is satisfied for that material. The key is to check each non-originating input against the heading of the finished product.
A CTSH rule is more restrictive: the non-originating materials must not only change heading but change at the subheading level (six-digit HS code). This gives exporters less flexibility because fewer processing steps achieve a subheading change.
Applying maximum non-originating material (MaxNOM) rules
A MaxNOM rule sets a ceiling on the proportion of non-originating materials in the finished product, typically expressed as a percentage of the ex-works price. For example, a MaxNOM of 50% means that no more than 50% of the ex-works price of the finished product can consist of non-originating materials.
Ex-works price is the price of the product at the factory gate, excluding all transport costs and duties applied after leaving the factory. The cost of originating materials, manufacturing, and overhead is counted as originating content. The cost of non-originating materials is counted against the MaxNOM ceiling.
To apply a MaxNOM rule in practice, you need a bill of materials for the product that traces the origin and cost of each input. For products with complex supply chains involving multiple tiers of suppliers, this requires supplier declarations from each supplier confirming the origin content of their components.
The tolerance rule
Most EU trade agreements include a tolerance rule, sometimes called the de minimis provision. Under this rule, a product can still qualify as originating even if a small proportion of non-originating materials does not meet the applicable PSR, provided that proportion does not exceed a specified percentage of the ex-works price of the finished product.
The tolerance percentage varies by agreement and by product. For industrial products, the most common tolerance is 10% of the ex-works price. For textile and apparel products, agreements that use a weight-based tolerance are more restrictive, often around 8% of the total weight of non-originating materials, though the exact figure is agreement-specific.
The tolerance rule does not apply to all product categories. For some agricultural and food products, and for certain sensitive industrial sectors, there is no tolerance allowance. Check the specific agreement's origin protocol to confirm whether tolerance applies to your product.
Operations that do not confer origin
Every EU trade agreement contains a list of operations that, regardless of where they are performed, do not confer originating status on goods. These are sometimes called "minimal operations" or "insufficient operations." The purpose is to prevent simple processing or assembly in a low-tariff country from artificially creating origin status.
Typical non-qualifying operations include: preservation operations such as airing, drying, and cooling; simple cleaning, washing, or painting; simple assembly or disassembly of parts into a complete product; slicing, cutting, or portioning without further manufacturing; diluting, mixing, or blending without changing characteristics; packing, packaging, or labelling; and simply marking goods with the origin of another country.
A practical example: a company imports assembled electronics from a third country, applies EU labels, repacks them in EU-branded boxes, and ships them. This does not confer EU origin. The goods retain the origin of the country where the substantive production took place.
The non-qualifying operations list applies in both directions: it prevents artificial origin creation for imports and prevents EU exporters from claiming EU origin for goods that were only superficially processed in the EU. If you are an EU manufacturer sourcing components from third countries and re-exporting the assembled product to an FTA partner, the same transformation analysis applies to your export origin claim.
Documenting your origin determination
Dutch Customs can request the documentation underlying any origin claim for up to three years after the goods were released. This means your origin determination must be documented, not just performed. The documentation should record: the HS code of the finished product, the relevant agreement and PSR applied, the HS codes and values of all non-originating inputs, the calculation showing that the rule is met (CTH verification or MaxNOM calculation), and the source of the input data, typically supplier declarations.
If your origin determination relies on supplier declarations confirming that inputs are EU-originating or originating in the partner country, those declarations must be retained and linked to the relevant shipments. For a detailed guide on the content requirements and validity rules for supplier declarations, see the article on supplier declarations for EU origin.