What are my overall responsibilities?

Exporter or Producer

As the exporter or producer, if you decide to qualify your product for NAFTA, you are responsible for complying with all of the complex rules established by the North American Free Trade Agreement.

You must qualify your product(s) using the complex rules of origin that are set forth in the Annex 401 of the NAFTA.

To do this, you must evaluate your material, all of the direct materials, and the indirect materials that are used in the production, and apply the rules of origin to determine if your product is eligible.

If you are exporting your product to Canada or Mexico, or selling to a customer that is going to export the product to Canada or Mexico, you will need to produce a NAFTA certificate of origin.

There are two methods to issuing a NAFTA certificate of origin:

• A blanket certificate of origin - this allows the exporter or producer to certify the NAFTA eligibility of their product for a 12 month continual period. The misconception about the 12 month period is that it must be a calendar year period. You can date your certificate starting 6/15/02, with an expiration period of 6/15/03.
• An entry-by-entry certification - this would require that the exporter or producer provide a NAFTA certificate of origin for every transaction (export).

You are also required to maintain the records pertaining to your product, including all records proving how you arrived at the qualification status of your product, for five years from the date that you sign your certificate of origin (in the United States).

Severe penalties can be levied for failure to maintain orderly records.

If you discover that the NAFTA eligibility status of your product is incorrect, you have 30 calendar days to notify all parties that you sent a NAFTA certificate of origin to of the error.