The country of origin (C/O) is the country where the goods are grown, produced or manufactured. Typical wordings are:

The C/O marking normally is required on the product, the inner package and the master package in a permanent manner, in legible words (some countries may require a minimum size of the words), and in a conspicuous place.

The permanent marking can be in the form of printing, stencilling, embossing, and other means, such as casting and moulding. In certain countries, it is not uncommon that the importer may request that stickers (printed labels) are used to mark the product and its package, instead of a permanent marking, in order that it can be removed or altered later so they can sell the product at a higher price.

Country of Origin Marking Exemption

The nature of some goods, such as nails, screws, bolts, and nuts, are exempted from the country of origin marking, but the packaging and master pack of such goods must be properly marked.

Plastic bags are not toys, playing with them can be hazardous! As a safety precaution and a reminder to consumers, the exporter may print on plastic bags used in packaging the goods:

Pre-ticketing---putting a retail price label and/or hanging tag on the package and/or the goods before they leave the manufacturer---may be required when dealing with chain stores.

Pre-ticketing can be in the form of a direct printing of the price on the package and/or the goods or the buyer supplies the price labels (stickers) and/or hanging tags to the seller. The buyer may have an authorized printer which could be in a third country. The manufacturer must make sure that the price labels and/or tags are available before the production of the goods.

The bonded manufacturer---bonded factory---is a factory authorized by some governments for temporary duty free importation of materials in the production of export goods. Duties are collected when the goods are sold to the local market.

The bonded manufacturer could be located in an export processing zone (EPZ) or outside the EPZ. In the latter case, usually a customs inspector is stationed in the factory to monitor the activities.

Bonded status may be granted to manufacturers having excellent export records for a required number of years (three years usually) prior to the filing of application for bonded status. Bonded status offers the convenience of not paying cash for import duties and saves time in waiting for the refund of import duties when the manufactured goods are exported.