Certificate Management

Certificate Management Issues and Challenges

Claims for preferential duty treatment under an FTA must be backed up by a preferential certificate of origin. A certificate is provided by the exporter to attest to where the item was grown or manufactured and that it is eligible for a preferential treatment under the respective trade agreement. Manufacturers must undergo a complex qualification process to determine origin.

While certificates are generally valid for a period of time, they may also be subject to revisions and amendments. For example, if a company sources a product from a different country, it would have to update its certificate of origin.

For an exporter handling thousands of products, managing certificates of origin, and their expirations, renewals and revisions is nearly impossible without automation. It is no wonder that so many perceive FTAs as being more trouble than they are worth.

Challenges include:

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Identifying changes to preferential status and active certificates

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Amending, republishing, and maintaining certificate versions

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Storing and retrieving certificates for official or audit purposes

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Tracking the renewal and expiration process for certificates

How Amber Road Can Help
Amber Road's Trade Agreement Management solution assists with the management of certificates of origin by linking them with products in the Global Product Master. FTA status are also maintained in the Global Product Master. This ensures that changes to a product's FTA statuses are automatically identified and prompt the generation of a new certificate.

If a new certificate of origin is required, the user can generate and republish it, while maintaining prior versions for audit purposes. If a change results in the product losing its FTA eligibility (e.g., a BOM changes), appropriate steps can be taken to contact customers, withdraw the certificate, and distribute a new one.

Because certificates are stored as separate records in the system with calculable data fields, they can also be queried and managed. For example, the annual renewal process becomes streamlined when expiration dates are tracked.

Features	Benefits
Certificate of Origin Management	▪	Publish FTA certificates to customers
	▪	Associate certificates of origin with products stored in the Global Product Master
	▪	Track changes to product FTA status and amend/re-version new certificates as required
Document Generation	▪	Generate accurate customer certificates once product eligibility is met
Document Visibility and Archiving	▪	Electronically transmit documents to customers
Document Visibility and Archiving	▪	Allow customers to create a request for a certificate and track the request through to completion

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Certificate Management

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