Rules of Origin in ASEAN A Way Forward

Rules of Origin in ASEAN is the first in-depth exploration of the complex rules of origin in ASEAN's trade agreements. Written by two leading practitioners, it explains with clarity the existing ASEAN Rules of Origin (RoO) practices and their administration regimes in a comparative context and provide a recommendation for reform. The ASEAN RoOs can be simplified by imparting transparency and predictability to the legal drafting, focusing on a calculation method based on value of materials and lowering the regional value content required to qualify as ASEAN origin. The administration of ASEAN RoOs can be improved by expanding the use of self-certification, moving away from document-based verification to more modern post-entry audit and trade facilitation approaches. This is a timely and important topic which will be insightful to practitioners, policymakers and businesses in understanding how commerce and trade are conducted in Southeast Asia.

General editors' preface; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. The initial set of ASEAN rules of origin: the lack of clarity and transparency masqueraded as simplicity, 1992–1995; 3. Externalizing the confusion: the proliferation of rules in the ASEAN FTAs with dialogue partners; 4. The silent cost: the cumbersome administration of ASEAN rules of origin; 5. The possible way forward: self-certification; 6. Conclusion and recommendations; Executive summary; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.

Stefano Inama is a chief and trade lawyer at UNCTAD. He has been responsible for the preferences and trade laws section in UNCTAD and coordinator of the UNCTAD commercial diplomacy program. He has also provided trade policy advice for the last twenty years to governments during the WTO negotiations and the implementation aspects of WTO agreements, as well as during negotiations of Free Trade Agreements such as the ASEAN-China, EU-South Africa, SADC and the Tripartite Free Trade area as well as FTA negotiations of Latin American and Caribbean countries with the EU. He is the author of Rules of Origin in International Trade (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Edmund Sim is a partner at Appleton Luff and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Law School, where he created the world's first course on ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) law. He has participated in more than 200 trade remedy proceedings and has advised government ministries on antidumping and countervailing duty laws, rules of origin, free trade agreements, and investment laws and their consistency with the WTO agreements.