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Country of origin: where goods are made, not where they ship from

Country of origin is where goods were made or last substantially transformed. How customs decide it, why it changes the duty, and when goods must be marked.

Updated · 6 official sources

Country of origin is the country where goods were wholly obtained or last substantially transformed into a new article, and it's not the country a parcel ships from. Origin sets the duty rate, decides whether extra duties aimed at a country apply, decides whether a trade agreement can lower the bill, and controls how the goods must be marked for sale.

Rules as of 30 October 2026.

What is country of origin?#

Country of origin is the country of manufacture, production or growth, in the words of US customs rules, and work in a second country changes it only if that work is a substantial transformation. EU rules say it in two steps: goods made entirely in one country originate there, and other goods originate where their last substantial processing happened.

Goods that are wholly obtained come from one country from start to finish: crops grown there, minerals mined there, animals born and raised there, and products made only from those. Most manufactured goods aren't wholly obtained, so their origin depends on what happened where. Our glossary entry has the one-line version.

There are two kinds of origin, and they answer different questions:

Non-preferential origin Preferential origin
What it's for Standard duty rates, trade remedies, quotas, sanctions, origin marking, statistics A lower or zero rate under a trade agreement or preference scheme
Which rules decide it The importing country's general origin rules The specific agreement's rules of origin
Proof Usually the declaration itself A certificate or origin statement the agreement accepts

What is substantial transformation?#

Substantial transformation is processing that turns goods into a new and different article; the EU calls it the last substantial, economically justified processing or working. Simple operations don't qualify. US rules for textiles and for goods from Canada and Mexico list operations that never count, such as simple packing, repacking or retail packaging, dilution with water and disassembly.

The EU adds an anti-avoidance test: processing done in another country to get around tariff measures isn't treated as economically justified. For some products, the EU's origin rules are written as binding list rules; for others, customs apply the principle case by case, using non-binding list rules as a guide. Where a list rule isn't met, origin can fall to the country where most of the materials came from.

A few cases show how it works:

  • A phone case molded in China, stored in a Dutch warehouse and repacked there for a UK customer is of Chinese origin. Storage and repacking change nothing.
  • Leather shoes made in Portugal and shipped from a US warehouse to Canada are of Portuguese origin, not US origin.
  • A bicycle assembled in one country from parts made in several others may or may not originate where it was assembled. It depends on the rule for that product, which is where a ruling or expert advice pays for itself.

Why does origin change the duty?#

Origin changes the duty because a tariff rate attaches to the origin as well as the code. Preferential rates apply only to goods that originate in a partner country, and many extra duties, such as anti-dumping duties or US Section 301 duties, target named origins. Two identical products with the same HS code can pay very different amounts.

Take a box of 100 cotton T-shirts with a customs value of $2,000, entering the US under HTS 6109.10.00, where the general rate is 16.5% and the rate for goods that qualify under USMCA is free:

Where the T-shirts were made and shipped from Origin Duty at the regular rates
Made in Mexico, qualifying under USMCA, preference claimed Mexico $0
Made in Mexico from materials that don't meet the USMCA rule Mexico $330 (16.5%)
Made in China, shipped from a warehouse in Mexico China $330 (16.5%), plus any additional duty on Chinese goods

The third row is the shipped-from trap: the parcel leaves Mexico, but nothing about it is Mexican for customs. A USMCA claim also covers an exemption from the merchandise processing fee. The US tariffs page lists the additional duties in force by origin, and trade agreements covers how preferences work.

Do goods have to be marked with their origin?#

Many countries require imported goods to show their country of origin. In the US, every article of foreign origin, or its container where the article is excepted, must be marked in a conspicuous place, as legibly, indelibly and permanently as the article allows, with the English name of its country of origin, so the final US buyer can see it.

Marking has to match the declared origin, and "Made in" claims on product pages and packaging should match it too. A line such as "Designed in California" says where the design work happened, not where the goods were made. For goods from Canada and Mexico, the US uses its Part 102 rules to decide the origin that goes on the label.

How do you find and record origin?#

Find origin at the factory, not the warehouse. Ask each supplier where the goods were made and which processing happened where, keep their written answer, and store origin per product rather than per shipping location. For a trade-agreement claim you need more: the agreement's own rule for the product and the proof it asks for, covered in certificates of origin.

If you resell other brands' goods, the country of origin finder reads a product page or barcode and gives the likely origin with its evidence, a lead to confirm with your supplier rather than proof. The declarant stays responsible for the origin declared. We go through more examples in shipped from isn't made in.

Common questions#

Is country of origin the country a parcel ships from?#

No. It's the country where the goods were made or last substantially transformed. A product made in China and shipped from a European warehouse is still of Chinese origin.

Does repacking or relabeling change the country of origin?#

No. Origin follows manufacture, production or growth, so storage changes nothing, and US origin rules for textiles and for goods from Canada and Mexico list simple packing, repacking and retail packaging among the operations that don't count.

Who is responsible for the declared country of origin?#

The importer or declarant. The European Commission states that the declarant is responsible for determining origin, and customs can check it after the goods clear.

What is the difference between preferential and non-preferential origin?#

Non-preferential origin applies to every import, for standard duty rates, trade remedies, quotas, marking and statistics. Preferential origin is a stricter test under a trade agreement that, with the right proof, earns a lower rate.

Sources#