Anfao board of directors focuses on changing EU customs regulations
Given the changes in international trade policy within the Wto, first among these the entry of China followed by a massive expansion of the European Union, marking of origin has become an increasingly more important topic of discussion.
This problem has become, and is becoming even more important because it is associated with another burning issue in world trade: the widespread counterfeiting from emerging countries such as China and Russia with 'Made in Italy' as the main target.
To date, at world level (Wto), the basic criterion that is adopted for rules of origin is to consider the origin as being the country where the last substantial transformation of the product took place. In Europe, this is covered by EU Customs Regulation 2454, especially Annex 11, which states that the country of production is the country where the product was wholly manufactured or the country where the product underwent its last, substantial, economically justified transformation.
In the modern-day economy, the second case is the most widespread and most importantly this is when there is less absolute certainty. Here, several different interpretations are possible and here, of course, products are often treated on the basis of the personal opinion of the person checking them each time.
For this very reason, in order to finally have a single interpretation and also to help the authorities entrusted with the checking operations, Anfao - National Optical Goods Manufacturers' Association - has prepared a concrete proposal to share with the European Trade Association, Eurom 1, that can provide the basis for Europe's position at the Wto work table in the near future.
The fundamental point of the proposal - which kept the Made in Italy Commission busy for about a year, was prepared within the Association and was coordinated by Renato Sopracolle, Vice President of Anfao with a proxy for small companies, territory and 'made in' - involves providing a specific definition of 'substantial transformation' for optical products.
During its work, the Commission immediately noted that there is a large number of factors that determine the origin and that are overlooked by current regulations: design, prototyping, planning, research, industrialization.
In practice, the Anfao Board of Directors approved the technical proposal that prescribes, for sunglasses and frames, depending on the various materials, which processing operation can be defined as 'Made in Italy'.
The top management was very satisfied since this decision represents an important agreement among Italian companies in the industry that are committed to safeguarding the manufacture, quality and originality of Italian eyewear.
The next step is for the European Association, Eurom 1, to submit the proposal to the EU in order to obtain an amendment to Annex 11 of Customs Regulation 2454 as soon as possible, since only Eurom 1, as the representative of the European eyewear associations, is authorized to discuss the matter with the European Commission.
