Insufficient working and processing

1. The following operations shall be considered as insufficient working or processing to confer the status of originating products, whether or not the requirements of Articles 7 and 8:

a) preserving operations to ensure that the products remain in good condition during transport and storage.

b) breaking-up and assembly of packages.

c) washing, cleaning, removal of dust, oxide, oil, paint or other coverings.

d) ironing or pressing of textiles and textile articles.

dd) simple painting and polishing operations.

e) husking and partial or total milling of rice; polishing and glazing of cereals and rice.

g) operations to colour or flavour sugar or form sugar lumps; partial or total milling of crystal sugar.

h) peeling, stoning and shelling of fruits, nuts and vegetables.

i) sharpening, simple grinding or simple cutting.

k) sifting, screening, sorting, classifying, grading, or matching (including the making-up of sets of articles)

l) simple placing in bottles, cans, flasks, bags, cases, boxes, fixing on cards or boards and all other simple packaging operation.

m) affixing or printing marks, labels, logos and other like distinguishing signs on products or their packaging;

o) simple addition of water, dilution, dehydration or denaturation of products.

p) simple assembly of parts of articles to constitute a complete article or disassembly of products into part.

q) combination of two or more of the operations specified in points (a) to (p).

r) slaughter of animals.

2. For the purpose of paragraph 1, operations shall be considered simple when for their performance neither special skills are required nor machines, apparatus or tools especially produced or installed for those operations.

3. All operations carried out either in the Union or in Viet Nam on a given product shall be considered together when determining whether the working or processing undergone by that product is to be regarded as insufficient within the meaning of paragraph 1.

Article 11. Unit of qualification

1. The unit of qualification for the application of this Circular shall be the particular product which is considered as the basic unit when determining classification using the nomenclature of the HS.

2. When a consignment consists of a number of identical products classified under the same subheading of the HS, each individual item shall be taken into account when applying this Circular.

3. Where, under General Rule 5 of the HS, packaging is included in the product for classification purposes, it shall be included for the purposes of determining origin.

Article 12. Accessories, spare Parts and tools

Accessories, spare parts, tools and instructional or other information materials dispatched with a piece of equipment, machine, apparatus or vehicle, which are part of the normal equipment and included in the price thereof or which are not separately invoiced, shall be regarded as one with the piece of equipment, machine, apparatus or vehicle in question.

Article 13. Sets

Sets, as defined in General Rule 3 of the HS, shall be regarded as originating when all component products are originating products. When a set is composed of originating and non-originating products, the set as a whole shall be regarded as originating, provided that the value of the non-originating products does not exceed 15 percent of the ex-works price of the set.