Article

Procedure for the issue of a certificate of origin

1. A certificate of origin shall be issued by the competent authorities of the exporting Party on application having been made in writing by the exporter or, under the exporter's responsibility, by his authorised representative.

2. For this purpose, the exporter or his authorised representative shall fill out both the certificate of origin, specimen of which appear in Annex VII, and the application form.. The specimen of the application form to be used for exports from the Union to Vietnam appears in Annex VII; the specimen of the application form to be used for exports from Vietnam will be determined in the domestic legislation of Vietnam. These forms shall be completed in one of the languages in which this Agreement is drawn up and in accordance with the provisions of the domestic law of the exporting Party. If they are hand-written, they shall be completed in ink in printed characters. The description of the products must be given in the box reserved for this purpose without leaving any blank lines. Where the box is not completely filled, a horizontal line must be drawn below the last line of the description, the empty space being crossed through to prevent any subsequent addition.

3. The exporter applying for the issue of a certificate of origin shall be prepared to submit at any time, at the request of the competent authorities of the exporting Party, all appropriate documents proving the originating status of the products concerned as well as the fulfilment of the other requirements of this Protocol.

4. A certificate of origin shall be issued by the competent authorities of the exporting Party if the products concerned can be considered as products originating in the Union or in Vietnam and fulfil the other requirements of this Protocol.

5. The competent authorities issuing certificates of origin shall take any steps necessary to verify the originating status of the products and the fulfilment of the other requirements of this Protocol. For this purpose, they shall have the right to call for any evidence and to carry out any inspection of the exporter's accounts or any other check considered appropriate. They shall also ensure that the forms referred to in paragraph 2 are duly completed. In particular, they shall check whether the space reserved for the description of the products has been completed in such a manner as to exclude all possibility of fraudulent additions.

6. The date of issue of the certificate of origin shall be indicated in Box 11 of the certificate.

7. The Certificate of Origin shall be issued as near as possible to but not later than three working days after the date of exportation (the declared shipment date).