A document declaring in which country a commodity or good was manufactured. The certificate of origin contains information regarding the product's destination and country of export and is required by many treaty agreements before being accepted into another nation.

|||Trade restrictions, tariffs, embargoes and duties can all be affected by the certificate of origin. Because some nations limit or ban imports from certain countries, all incoming goods would be required to have a CO. To encourage imports from specific nations, governments may lower the duty on goods if accompanied by a CO from those countries.