The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (CP-TPP) which was signed off by 11 member states on 8 March 2018 in Chile entered into force on 30 December 2018, after being ratified by the Governments of 7 member countries comprising Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The CP-TPP was officially effective in Vietnam from 14 January.

To implement the CP-TPP, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has just released Circular 03/2019/TT-BCT dated 22 January providing guidance on the rules of origin (ROO) set out in the CP-TPP.

Notable points include:

- In general, exported goods from Vietnam to other member countries of the CP-TPP will be considered as originating from Vietnam if the goodsmeet one of the origin criteria in the ROO. These criteria comprise wholly obtained, produced entirely, change in tariff classification (i.e. CC,CTH, CTSH), regional value content (RVC), and other special origin criteria applicable to specific categories of goods (e.g. textile products).

- Regarding the RVC origin criterion, in addition to the build-up and build-down methods, Circular 03 introduces two completely new RVC calculation methods: the focused value method and the net cost method, where the latter is only applicable to automotive goods.

- Circular 03 will be effective from 8 March, but the goods exported from Vietnam before this date may be considered by the C/O issuing authorities to be granted the C/O Form CP-TPP on a request basis.