Ecuador still charges duty on a lot of Chinese industrial goods — 5% to 40% on plastics, man-made fibers, steel articles, machinery, electricals, furniture and auto parts. The China–Ecuador Free Trade Agreement takes 90% of tariff lines to zero over time, roughly 60% of them from day one. None of that lands on your entry automatically. Form EC is the document your broker files to claim it.
Form EC is the preferential certificate of origin issued under the China–Ecuador Free Trade Agreement. Its formal name is the Certificate of Origin under the China–Ecuador FTA; in daily trade people call it Form EC or the Ecuador FTA certificate. The certificate identifier is EC, and the whole document is completed in English.
It is issued by China Customs at the port of export, or by CCPIT and its local branches, filed online and normally self-printed on A4 in color with an electronic seal and signature. You file before or at the time of shipment. If that window is missed, a retroactive certificate can still be requested within one year of the shipment date, and the certificate remains valid for twelve months from issue.
What it buys you: the treaty rate at the Ecuadorian entry instead of the MFN rate. That is a claim you elect, supported by origin evidence — no certificate, no claim. The saving is real on industrial lines still carrying 5% to 40%; on lines already at zero, the certificate is a file copy. Either way, the decision belongs in your landed-cost model before the order ships.
China and Ecuador signed the agreement on May 11, 2023 — Ecuador signed in Quito on May 10, China in Beijing the next day — and it took effect on May 1, 2024. Ecuador became China's 27th FTA partner and the fourth in Latin America, after Chile, Peru and Costa Rica. Form EC is the certificate that operates under that agreement.
Each side eventually removes duty on 90% of its tariff lines, and about 60% were cut when the agreement took effect. On the Chinese side, Ecuador's bananas, shrimp, fish, fish oil, cut flowers, cocoa and coffee came in at 5% to 20% and step down to zero. On your side, Chinese plastics, man-made fibers, steel articles, machinery and appliances, electrical equipment, furniture and auto parts carry Ecuadorian MFN rates of roughly 5% to 40% and step down on the schedule. Rates move by year, so the number your broker applies has to come from the current schedule for that subheading, not from a press release.
The document is one page of blocks: exporter, consignee, transport and routing, marks and package numbers, description of goods with HS code and quantity, invoice number and date, origin criterion, and the issuing office's declaration, signature and seal. It carries a unique certificate number and it states the basis on which the goods qualify. An origin-criterion box filled in loosely, or a rule claimed that the shipment does not meet, is a certificate waiting to be pulled.
The Chinese side works to two instruments: the measures on origin administration under the China–Ecuador FTA (GACC Announcement No. 46 of 2024, effective May 1, 2024), which decides how origin is established, and the measures on the administration of certificate of origin visas (GACC Order No. 270, effective September 1, 2024), which governs filing, review, issuance, amendment and retroactive issuance.
Origin is decided one of three ways. Wholly obtained or produced in China or Ecuador. Produced exclusively from originating materials — everything that went into the goods already qualifies. Non-originating materials that meet the product-specific rule in Annex 1 for the tariff line: a tariff classification change, a required process, or a value threshold. Where no specific rule applies, the fallback is a regional value content of at least 40%, calculated as (FOB value − value of non-originating materials) ÷ FOB value × 100%. That third route is how nearly all manufactured exports qualify.
Three supporting rules decide as much as the headline test. Bilateral cumulation: materials originating in either country count as originating in the other. De minimis: under a tariff-change rule, non-originating materials worth up to 10% of FOB value may be disregarded. Sets: non-originating components worth up to 15% of the value of a set keep the set qualifying. And a floor under all of it — packing, labeling, diluting, simple assembly or disassembly, washing, ironing, simple painting, shelling, peeling, simple cutting, sorting, simple mixing and similar minimal operations do not confer origin, however much paperwork surrounds them.
One more condition travels with the goods: direct transport. Either the cargo does not pass through a third country at all, or it does so only for geography or transport needs, is not manipulated beyond unloading and operations needed to keep it in condition, stays no more than six months, and remains under customs control throughout. Six months is this agreement's limit — do not carry over the twelve-month figure from other deals.
One certificate covers one shipment. Split consignments need separate certificates, and a certificate cannot be recycled for a later shipment of similar goods.
Your name sits on the Ecuadorian entry, which means the duty bill, the verification and the penalty exposure all land on your side of the transaction. Form EC is the document that moves the shipment into the treaty column and keeps it there.
Your broker declares the preference, the certificate number and the matching certificate item against the entry. Without a valid certificate there is nothing to declare, and the entry is liquidated at the MFN rate — the same goods, a different number.
Plastics, man-made fibers, steel articles, machinery, electricals, furniture and auto parts sit in the 5%–40% band on Ecuador's MFN schedule and step down year by year. On a $120,000 shipment, a 20-point gap is $24,000 — not a rounding error, and not something you recover later without effort.
Ecuador uses the US dollar, so duty is a straight dollar cost with no FX cushion built into it. That makes the tariff line, and the certificate behind it, one of the cleaner numbers in your landed-cost model.
Your Ecuadorian broker needs the certificate number and issue date to tie the preference claim to the entry. Paperwork that arrives after the entry has been filed means an amendment, a refund claim or a post-entry correction — three processes instead of one.
Ecuador's customs service verifies preference claims after release. The certificate, the invoice, the bill of materials and the production record are what you produce. A clean file closes the query; a thin file loses the preference and picks up the assessment.
Anti-dumping and safeguard actions, quota administration and import statistics are all built on origin. The certificate is the record behind the number when a case file opens years later, and the agreement carries its own bilateral safeguard mechanism.
Only two types of office in China can issue a Form EC — China Customs, and CCPIT with its local branches. Both produce a certificate Ecuador accepts, both are filed online, and neither charges a visa fee. Which one you use is usually settled by your contract, your letter of credit, or your supplier's existing registration.
| Channel | What it is | Where it is filed | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| China Customs | Government issuing authority — the customs house at the port of export | Internet + Customs at online.customs.gov.cn (origin certificate module), or the Single Window at singlewindow.cn | You want the certificate tied to the export declaration and reviewed by the same administration that handles origin checks |
| CCPIT | Chamber issuer — the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and its local branches | CCPIT origin certificate system at co.ccpit.org, or declare.ecoccpit.net | Your buyer or bank wants a chamber-issued certificate, or your supplier already files everything through CCPIT |
Filing is electronic end to end. Submit in one of the systems above, the authority reviews it online, and once it clears you print the certificate yourself — A4, color, double-sided, with the electronic seal and the authorized signature. That printout has the same legal effect as a pre-printed form collected at the counter. Form EC sits on the self-print list, so a paper original from the window is an option, not the routine.
There is no residency requirement. Any customs house or local CCPIT branch will take an online filing. Cargo out of Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta is normally filed with Shenzhen Customs or CCPIT Shenzhen, which keeps review and rework in one place. Cargo out of Guangzhou, Nansha, Huangpu, Ningbo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin or Xiamen is filed with the office that matches the port of export.
Your broker files the import declaration in Ecuador's customs system, ECUAPASS, declares the agreement and the certificate number, and keeps the certificate on file for the post-clearance audit. China and Ecuador had not connected their origin certificate data electronically as of the customs administration's September 2024 preference guide, so the certificate itself is still the evidence: send the PDF ahead for pre-filing and put the original in the document set. A scanned copy on a phone is not a substitute.
The other direction, for completeness. When Ecuadorian goods enter China and the importer claims the same agreement, the Chinese entry carries agreement code 25, filed through the origin element declaration system with the certificate data and the direct-transport undertaking. If the certificate is not yet in hand at declaration, the importer may file a supplementary origin declaration and clear against a duty guarantee, then release the guarantee once the certificate arrives. A verification unanswered within six months of the request means the preference is denied. Records are kept three years.
The rule is short. The exporter named on the certificate, or the manufacturer of the goods, may apply — directly or through an agent holding a signed power of attorney. In practice that produces three working arrangements, and one route that does not exist for Ecuador.
The manufacturer keeps its own company profile and files its own certificates. Tightest control over the bill of materials, and the right setup when the product range is narrow and the documents desk is staffed.
The exporter applies in its own name, so the certificate matches the invoice and the bill of lading it issued. The usual arrangement for high-volume shippers with a dedicated documents team.
The certificate still carries your supplier's name or yours — never ours. This is the route for importers whose supplier has no documents desk, whose cargo is spread across several ports, or whose product needs the origin calculation done for them.
China abolished registration for origin certificate applicants on November 1, 2023 (GACC Announcement No. 136 of 2023). A first-time applicant maintains its company details in the filing system — unified social credit code, Chinese and English name and address — accepts the applicant undertaking, and files. Companies that already hold an import/export consignee registration can pull those details across with one click instead of retyping them.
To self-print, there is one extra step: upload the company's Chinese and English seal and the authorized declarant's signature in the Single Window, then set the default seal and signature. Without that, a cleared certificate still cannot be printed with a valid electronic seal.
When we file as agent, the entrustment is registered in the e-port system: a signed power of attorney, the agent's details, the start and end dates, uploaded by the principal. Printing authority is a separate authorization. Both are set up once and reused.
A manufacturer can use the advance origin verification module to put its bill of materials, components and manufacturing steps in front of the customs office before the first shipment, and get the origin position settled. For multi-component goods that need a value calculation on every order, this is the step that removes repeated argument later.
The rule puts the application before or at the time of shipment. That is not bureaucratic fussiness — the certificate carries transport details, and the departure date, vessel and voyage or flight number and port of discharge do not exist until the booking is confirmed.
Departure date, vessel or flight, discharge port. Pull the invoice, packing list, HS codes and the origin support for each line.
Identify the Annex 1 rule for the tariff line and assemble the bill of materials or cost build-up that proves it. Do this before filing, not after a query.
Review is completed within two business days. Self-print, then check the number, the seal, the signature and the ORIGINAL marking.
PDF goes out ahead so your Ecuadorian broker can pre-file the entry; the original travels with the documents or by courier.
A retroactive certificate can be requested within one year of the shipment date, filed with the bill of lading or air waybill as proof of that date. If it clears review it is issued and annotated ISSUED RETROSPECTIVELY, and it stays valid for one year from the shipment date rather than from the issue date. Nothing is issued where the goods have been returned or origin cannot be verified, and some letters of credit refuse a certificate dated after the bill of lading — check the credit before you rely on the retrofit.
Filing it yourself and having us file it walk the same official path. What changes is who fills the form, who reconciles it against the rest of the file, and who does the rework when a field is wrong.
Destination Ecuador, Chinese origin, and a tariff line that sits in Ecuador's schedule with a rate that has actually stepped down. A line already at zero at the standard rate needs the certificate for the file only.
Read the Annex 1 rule for the line, then decide whether the goods are wholly obtained, made from originating materials, meet a tariff change or process rule, or reach 40% value content.
Bill of materials, supplier invoices for non-originating inputs, cost build-up where value content is the test. This is the file that answers a verification six months from now.
Invoice, packing list, bill of lading. Invoice number and date, value, package count, gross and net weight, marks — all of it agrees before anything is filed.
Exporter and consignee details, routing, description taken line by line from the invoice, HS code, origin criterion. No catch-all words in the description box.
Customs or CCPIT completes review within two business days and normally lists every needed correction in one pass, which is why a clean file saves a full round trip.
Self-print A4 color, double-sided, or collect at the counter. Verify certificate number, seal, signature and the ORIGINAL marking before the page leaves the office.
PDF to your broker immediately, original with the documents or by courier. Keep the certificate copy and the application file for three years — that is what a verification asks for.
The list is short, but one item is heavier than a plain CO requires: Form EC asks for evidence of origin, and that is the part reviewers in China and customs officers in Ecuador both read closely.
Two charges, two reasons. The issuing office takes no visa fee for an origin certificate — neither China Customs nor CCPIT publishes one. What you pay is the agent's fee for the work behind the filing.
China Customs issues origin certificates without a visa charge, and CCPIT's published schedule shows the same. Review, certificate format, electronic seal and electronic signature are not billed to the applicant.
Our charge covers the work: settling the origin criterion, assembling the support file, reconciling the three documents, filing, tracking the review, printing and delivery, and rework if a field is wrong. Quoted per certificate, one price per certificate, not a percentage of your cargo value.
These documents look similar on the page and do different jobs at the border. Ecuador is one market where the choice is narrow: there is exactly one preferential certificate that works, and several that look like they might.
| Document | Code | What it does at an Ecuadorian entry | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form EC — China–Ecuador FTA certificate of origin | EC | Supports the treaty rate, provided the Annex 1 rule for the line is met and the rate has stepped down for that year. | Goods are Chinese origin and duty would otherwise be charged. The default choice for China-to-Ecuador cargo. |
| CO — non-preferential certificate of origin | C | Proves Chinese origin only. No treaty rate, no reduction — the entry stays on the MFN column. | Your buyer, bank or broker asks for proof of origin without a preference claim. |
| RCEP certificate — Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership | RC | Nothing. Ecuador is not an RCEP party, so the document has no standing at an Ecuadorian entry. | Other destinations only. Never for Ecuador. |
| China–Chile, China–Peru, China–Costa Rica certificates | F / R / L | Nothing. Each certificate covers its own party; Ecuador is not among them. | Shipments to Chile, Peru or Costa Rica respectively. |
| Andean Community preference | — | Nothing. Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are members; China is not, so Chinese goods cannot travel on it. | Intra-Andean trade between member countries. |
Issuance is the start, not the end. Ecuador verifies preference claims after release, and the question in a verification is rarely "is there a certificate" — it is "does this certificate hold up".
Imported components declared as wholly obtained, or a value-content claim that never reached 40%. The heaviest category, and the one that survives an audit years later.
"Machine parts", "fittings", "goods" — that is not a description. Each invoice line needs the item, the specification, the model and the quantity, with the HS code beside it.
Ecuador's schedule runs at the Andean subheading level, which does not map one-to-one to the Chinese export code. A code that lands on the wrong subheading can put the goods outside the rule and the rate at once.
Invoice date, value, package count, gross weight, marks — any difference against the packing list, bill of lading or entry invites a closer look. Amendments cost more than clean filings.
Cargo routed through Busan, Singapore or Hong Kong has to stay under six months and remain unmanipulated and under customs control. No through bill, discharge records or non-manipulation certificate leaves the condition unproven.
A certificate past its twelve months, or one issued after shipment without the retroactive annotation, does not support the claim. The entry then sits at the MFN rate until it is corrected.
If a claim is challenged at the Ecuadorian border and the shipment is held up, the exporter can raise it through the preference-obstruction coordination module in China's Single Window: link the certificate to the export declaration, then file a coordination request so the two administrations can look at it. It is a recovery route, not a substitute for filing correctly the first time.
The questions importers actually send us, answered without the treaty language.
No. A regular CO proves only that the goods are Chinese. Form EC certifies origin under the China–Ecuador Free Trade Agreement and is what supports the treaty rate at an Ecuadorian entry. Both are issued by the same two types of office and both are filed online, but only Form EC lets your broker claim the FTA rate instead of the most-favored-nation rate.
Run three numbers: whether the tariff line sits in Ecuador's schedule of concessions and has already stepped down, the gap between the MFN rate and the treaty rate this year, and whether your contract or letter of credit calls for an FTA certificate. If the gap is real and the buyer or bank wants the document, you need it. If the line is already at zero at the standard rate, the certificate is a file copy, not a saving.
It does not. The treaty rate needs three things at once: the goods genuinely meet the origin rule, the certificate matches the shipment and the invoice, and the line is inside the schedule with the rate already cut for that year. Ecuador's customs service can verify a claim after release. A certificate that overstates the origin criterion is a duty assessment waiting to happen, and the assessment lands on the importer of record.
The issuing office finishes its review within two business days of accepting the filing. With a clean file, most certificates clear in a working day and can be self-printed the same afternoon. Where a correction is needed, the rework sits on top of that clock, which is why we settle the origin call before we file rather than after.
Nothing from the government. China Customs and CCPIT both issue origin certificates without a visa fee. What you pay is the agent's service fee, quoted per certificate and itemized by the work: origin analysis, document reconciliation, filing, tracking, rush handling, amendment or courier.
The exporter named on the certificate, or the manufacturer of the goods, either directly or through an agent holding a signed power of attorney. Export registration for origin certificates was abolished on November 1, 2023, so a first-time applicant only maintains its company details in the filing system. When we file, the certificate stays in your supplier's name or yours, never in ours.
One of three routes. Wholly obtained or produced in China or Ecuador. Produced only from originating materials. Or made with non-originating materials that satisfy the product-specific rule in Annex 1 for the tariff line, or that reach a regional value content of at least 40% where no specific rule applies. Value content is (FOB value minus non-originating materials) divided by FOB value. Under a tariff-change rule, non-originating materials up to 10% of FOB value can be disregarded.
Yes, within one year of the shipment date, filed with the bill of lading or air waybill as proof of that date. It is annotated ISSUED RETROSPECTIVELY and stays valid for one year from the shipment date rather than the issue date. Two limits: nothing is issued where the goods were returned or origin cannot be verified, and some letters of credit refuse a certificate dated after the bill of lading.
Twelve months from the date of issue. A retroactive certificate runs twelve months from the shipment date. Amendments and reissues carry the same expiration as the original, so a correction made late in the cycle does not buy you another year.
Direct transport allows a stop in a third country, but the goods may stay no more than six months, may undergo nothing beyond unloading, reloading and operations needed to keep them in condition, and must remain under customs control the whole time. Six months is the limit under this agreement, not twelve. Keep the through bill, the discharge and reload records, and any non-manipulation certificate.
Not today. Under the Chinese measures for this agreement, the certificate is the only form of origin evidence provided for, and the list of agreements where an approved exporter may issue a declaration does not include Ecuador. The document has to come from an issuing office.
It can, and it does. A verification request goes from Ecuador's customs authority to the contact point China's customs administration has notified, and the answer has to come back within six months of the request. No satisfactory answer means the goods are assessed at the non-preferential rate. The certificate, the bill of materials and the production record are what close the query, which is why the origin file is built at filing time and kept for three years.
Normally yes. The consignee block should match the invoice and the bill of lading. Where a third-country company invoices the goods, the certificate is filed on a third-party invoice basis with the corresponding remark, declared when you apply, so the names on the three documents do not diverge.
Under the schedule, each side eventually eliminates duty on 90% of its tariff lines, and about 60% of lines were cut at entry on May 1, 2024. Chinese plastics, man-made fibers, steel articles, machinery, electrical equipment, furniture and auto parts currently carry Ecuadorian MFN rates of roughly 5% to 40%, stepping down on the schedule. The rate for a given subheading differs by year, so quote against the current schedule, not against a headline percentage.
Tell us the subheading your Ecuadorian broker will declare, the Incoterms and what the buyer or bank has asked for. You get an origin read, the document checklist and an itemized quote for the filing — handled in Shenzhen, for cargo out of any China port.
