US and Italian chambers join ICC Certificate of Origin Accreditation Chain

By joining the ICC CO Accreditation Chain, the United States’ Birmingham Business Alliance, Greater Miami Chamber, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and American Export Chamber, and Italy’s Chamber of Commerce of Maremma and Tirreno will benefit from the use of the internationally recognised ICC CO label and will be able to link their CO to the official ICC CO Verification website.

Emily Jerkins Hall, President and COO at the Birmingham Business Alliance, said: “The Birmingham Business Alliance is honoured to be one of the first chambers in the United States to receive this internationally acclaimed accreditation. With this accreditation, we can deliver the highest quality of export documentation to our community of more than 775 exporters and 100 foreign-based companies in the greater Birmingham, Alabama region.“

Megan Gill Stempin, Interim President and CEO of the American Export Chamber, said: “The American Export Chamber is thrilled to be among the first US Chambers to apply and be accredited by the ICC World Chambers Federation. We are committed to strictly adhering to the international guidelines set forth and being accepted into the accreditation chain is an absolute honour. We will encourage and support other US-based chambers in acquiring this high standard of quality and integrity with their export documentation certification.”

Liane Ventura Guerra, Senior Vice President for International Business at the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, said: “The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, one of the oldest chambers in the nation, is pleased to receive internationally acclaimed accreditation from ICC. The chamber is at the forefront of working with governments, chambers, and private companies around the world to digitise trade documents so that Florida companies can clear customs in an expedited manner. We are proud to have this accreditation that will serve the more than 57,000 exporters in the state of Florida as they continue to meet the highest standards as set by the ICC with their documentation certificates.”

Established by ICC WCF in 2012, the ICC CO Chain now comprises 775 chambers from 31 countries. Together, this network issues more than 8.5 million COs a year with the trusted and official ICC WCF Label, adhering to the most stringent and universal certification standards – outlined in the ICC WCF International CO Guidelines – to issue trade documents in their respective countries.

Through the creation of the ICC CO Chain, ICC WCF enables chamber leaders in promoting the use of universal certification standards and processes to better serve the global trading community. Being a member provides added confidence that chamber competency and credibility as trusted third parties in the issuance of COs remains up to date.

Approval of the new members was made during a meeting of the ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) International CO Council held at the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce on 1 June 2022, which brought together 40 CO experts from over 27 countries.

Welcomed by Greet Prins, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and chaired by Martin Van der Weide, Origin Policy Manager at the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce, the group discussed the strategy for the coming years in the field of origin, as well as two new digital trade services for chambers and exporters recently launched by ICC: Genesis, a digital platform that allows exporters to verify their self-certification of the origin of the exporting products, and the newly upgraded CO Verification website.

The meeting also saw discussions and presentations from a range of stakeholders also working in the origin field, such as the ICC Global Policy Commission on Customs and Trade Facilitation, IBM and Pincvision, as well as by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs who presented the ministry’s new e-Attestation system that would require Certificates of origin issued by chambers of commerce to be uploaded into its system before goods can enter UAE.

The Council also plans to create and fill three CO Council Vice-Chair positions at the beginning of 2023 to lead on CO Accreditation Chain, Digital COs and Rules of Origin.