Ces critères peuvent être basés sur des modifications de positions tarifaires, la valeur ajoutée, un besoin de transformation spécifique, l’utilisation d’intrants entièrement obtenus ou, très souvent, une combinaison de ces éléments. En outre, il convient de tenir compte de règles supplémentaires portant sur des opérations minimales (qui ne peuvent jamais acquérir le statut d'origine) et de tolérances.
To have the preferential origin of a country, goods must be wholly obtained (e.g. grown, mined) there or, where this is not the case, have undergone sufficient processing there. At present the rules of origin define "sufficient processing" by way of a very long list of origin criteria that vary from product to product. These may be based on changes of tariff heading, value added, a specific processing requirement, the use of wholly obtained inputs or, frequently, a combination of the foregoing. Furthermore, additional rules on minimal operations (which can never acquire origin) and tolerances have to be taken into account.
