BANGKOK, 29 May 2015 - In-country training on Rules of Origin (ROO) hosted by the Customs Department of Thailand in Bangkok from 27 - 29 May completes a series of capacity building activities on ROO for ASEAN, with focus on ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA).

The activities include the development of training modules, translation of training modules into national languages of ASEAN Member States, training of trainers at regional level and national level trainings in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. The activities contribute to enhancing the capacity of ASEAN officials on rules of origin to facilitate the implementation of their FTA commitments. The in-country training particularly benefits front-line actors and private sector entities including traders, chamber of commerce and intermediaries involved in ROO certification and clearances to encourage full use of tariff preferences.

Ms. Tutiaty Wahab, Director, Department of International Trade of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei Darussalam, and concurrently ASEAN co-Chair of AANZFTA Committee on Trade in Goods, highlighted the importance of the trainings not only in helping the participants better understand the ROO but also enabling them to share their expertise effectively to other officers, exporters, manufacturers and forwarders during the regional training for trainers held in Brunei Darussalam in 2013.

Around 50 officials from the ASEAN Member States participated in the regional training and the certified ROO trainers then delivered the trainings at the national level.

The AANZFTA Rules of Origin Modules include a comprehensive guide to rules of origin from general concept to operational procedures. The training modules, which are available in Indonesia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam languages, guide the step-by-step implementation of national trainings.

Around 400 officials and public-private stakeholders have now been trained in ASEAN. Since 2013, the series of technical assistance and trainings on AANZFTA ROO for the ASEAN Member States have been supported under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA Economic Cooperation Support Program (AECSP).

For more information, please visit https://aanzfta.asean.org/.