What Is Country of Origin?

The definition of country of origin comes from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations at 19 CFR 134.1. Three ideas carry most of the weight:

• Where it was made, produced or grown. That country is the starting answer.
• Substantial transformation. Further work or material added in another country must effect a substantial transformation before that country becomes the country of origin.
• USMCA goods. For a good of a NAFTA or USMCA country, the marking rules in part 102 of the customs regulations decide the country of origin instead.

The country of origin also travels on the paperwork. Under 19 CFR 141.86, each invoice of imported merchandise must show the country of origin of the merchandise.

Under 19 U.S.C. 1304, every article of foreign origin imported into the United States, or its container where the law allows, must be marked in a conspicuous place, as legibly, indelibly and permanently as the article permits. The marking must show the ultimate purchaser in the United States the English name of the country of origin.

Who counts as the ultimate purchaser shapes the rule. CBP describes the ultimate purchaser as generally the last person in the United States who will receive the article in the form in which it was imported. Three of its examples:

• Used in manufacture. If a manufacturer substantially transforms the imported article, the manufacturer may be the ultimate purchaser.
• Minor processing. If the process is minor and leaves the article's identity intact, the consumer or user who gets it afterward is the ultimate purchaser.
• Sold as imported. If the article is sold at retail in its imported form, the retail buyer is the ultimate purchaser.

Country of origin for customs is not the same test as a "Made in USA" claim. Under the Federal Trade Commission's Made in USA labeling rule (16 CFR part 323), a product can be labeled Made in the United States only if its final assembly or processing occurs in the United States, all significant processing occurs in the United States, and all or virtually all of its ingredients or components are made and sourced in the United States.

A fastener distributor imports 50,000 hex bolts, packed 100 to a box: 50,000 / 100 = 500 boxes. The bolts were forged in country A from steel wire drawn in country B.

Country A is the origin only if forging the wire into bolts substantially transformed it; otherwise the origin stays with country B. Whichever country it is, the import invoice shows it as the country of origin of the merchandise. The bolts, or their containers where the law allows, carry its English name, and the distributor enters it in the product's origin field in its store. This page explains the rules; it is not legal advice.

Each physical product in Shopify has a section for information that's required when shipping products internationally, including a Country/Region of origin field. Shopify defines it as the country where the product was manufactured or assembled. If the product consists of materials from different countries or regions, the country or region where it takes its final form is the origin, and Shopify notes that different countries and treaties have different rules of origin.

When you collect duties at checkout, Shopify advises checking that the country or region of origin on your commercial invoice matches the order in your Shopify admin.

Uncap's guide to food distributor software asks distributors to evaluate whether an online channel can support buyer-facing documentation downloads, such as country of origin declarations, linked to specific orders.

• HTS code
• Commercial invoice
• Incoterms
• Lot number
• Landed cost

• 19 CFR 134.1, Definitions (Cornell LII)
• 19 U.S.C. 1304, Marking of imported articles and containers (Cornell LII)
• 16 CFR 323.2, Made in USA Labeling: prohibited acts (Cornell LII)