On November 28, 2024, during the CXXXVIII Technical Committee No. 3, the national coordinators on rules of origin of MERCOSUR approved the draft Directive, which was subsequently submitted to the MERCOSUR Trade Commission (CCM). At its XLIV Extraordinary Meeting, held on December 2, 2024, the CCM approved CCM Directive No. 130/24, which updates Annex II of CMC Decision 05/23 (MERCOSUR Regulations of Origin, ROM) to the VII Amendment of the Harmonized System (HS).
As in all cases, this regulation entails a period for its incorporation and entry into force, which is expected to be as short as possible. In response to possible queries from operators, it is clarified that until the new directive is fully in force in MERCOSUR, the list of origin requirements based on the NCM 2017 will continue to be valid.
This new development is of great relevance for commercial operators, since the list of origin requirements of the ROM (Annex II) was still in the previous version of the HS, corresponding to the NCM 2017. This was due to the fact that, due to issues of mere exercise of transposition of nomenclatures, it required a longer time of analysis and development to be able to finally conclude it.
It is valid to ask why some updates cannot be carried out automatically. The answer is that the complexity of the changes often means that the transfer from one amendment to another (transposition) does not occur in a linear manner. An NCM can lead to a greater opening of two or more NCMs, or vice versa, and there are cases that involve detailed analysis of each product or NCM in particular so that the final exercise safeguards the original scope of the original requirements and does not reflect issues of another nature.
During 2024, and in particular since the entry into force of the new ROM on July 18, various Directives have been approved that complement and update the main standard, DEC. CMC 05/23. This dynamism reflects the changing nature of international trade, where developments, improvements and advances are constant, adapting to the needs of regional and international trade.
The recently approved update marks another significant step towards regulatory modernization and harmonization, reaffirming MERCOSUR's commitment to trade facilitation and the optimization of its procedures.
