THE Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce has launched an online Certificate of origin (CO) Authentication System, the first of its kind in Hong Kong.

    The system allows customs officers, consulates, banks and importers of the goods to verify the authenticity of HKGCC's re-export and transhipment COs, as well as check if the documents have been tampered with.

    "The online service is able to screen out forged COs and COs that have been tampered with," said the Chamber's Director of Certification CC Chan. "The service is available 24 hours a day, no registration is required and the service is free of charge. We hope this will give people using our HKGCC COs total confidence and peace of mind."

    The system allows users to check online the four data fields on the Chamber's database to ensure they correspond with the physical CO. Stakeholders simply input the CO number plus an authentication code printed on the Certificate of origin -Re-export and Certificate of origin - Without Transit / With Transhipment to instantly verify the CO.

(source:www.schednet.com)