DGFT launches Open API facility for Certificate of Origin on Trade Connect e-Platform

Mechanism

DGFT's Trade Connect e-Platform already issues both preferential and non-preferential Certificates of Origin; Trade Notice No. 25/2026-27 adds an Open API layer so an exporter's own ERP/accounting system can submit CoO applications and pull verification data directly, instead of manual portal entry. Access requires API credentials issued through the CoO Portal's API Management section plus IP-address registration; the spec calls for SHA-256 RSA signing with 2048-bit X.509 certificates, PBKDF2 password hashing with dynamic salt, and 60-minute access tokens.

Coverage spans preferential CoOs issued under India's FTA/RTA/PTA network (CEPA/CECA/ECTA/TEPA agreements — Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Chile, UAE, Australia, Oman, EFTA, UK — plus SAFTA, SAPTA, ASEAN-India FTA, Mercosur PTA and GSP) and non-preferential CoOs used for customs clearance, compliance and trade-remedy documentation.

Downstream implications

• Pure administrative/digitisation measure — no change to tariff rates,

quotas, or licensing conditions for any product or partner country.

• Faster, more auditable origin documentation could marginally strengthen

India's ability to verify rules-of-origin compliance across its FTA network, relevant to anti-circumvention/transshipment enforcement over time.

• No sector- or material-specific targeting; applies uniformly across all CoO

applicants.

Open questions

• Whether integration will be made mandatory for high-volume exporters or

remains opt-in indefinitely.

• Whether DGFT will publish adoption/usage statistics that could serve as a

proxy for compliance-system modernisation across Indian exporters.