On May 2, 2026, the ASEAN Secretariat, together with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, officially launched the RCEP 'Green Origin AI Verification System', requiring that product pages on official websites of electromechanical, new energy, and light industrial products exported to the RCEP region support the automatic capture of structured carbon data and origin declarations. This mechanism directly impacts companies that rely on the RCEP market for exports, especially those that frequently apply for certificates of origin and participate in the green procurement whitelist, posing a substantial compliance barrier.

Event Overview

On May 2, 2026, the ASEAN Secretariat, together with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, issued an upgraded announcement on RCEP green trade, officially launching the 'e-CO + Carbon Passport' dual-mode electronic certificate of origin AI verification system. The system targets electromechanical, new energy, and light industrial products exported to the RCEP region, requiring companies to integrate structured carbon footprint data and country of origin declaration information into their official website product pages, enabling the system to automatically identify and retrieve these data. Companies that fail to adapt their websites will face the risk of delayed customs clearance in importing countries and removal from the green buyer whitelist.

Which sub-sectors will be affected?

Direct trading enterprises

Because RCEP member countries' customs authorities need to submit both e-CO and Carbon Passport documents, the export documentation process no longer relies solely on paper or traditional electronic certificates of origin (such as Form E), but instead shifts to real-time data supply from the official website. The impact is reflected in: the origin declaration stage moving forward to the product listing stage; carbon data needing to be embedded in a machine-readable format (such as JSON-LD) on the official website's product page; and existing customs brokerage services potentially being unable to cover the system's automatic verification process.

Processing and manufacturing enterprises

As the actual producers of electromechanical, new energy, and light industrial products, companies that lack knowledge of their own product carbon emission factors or have not established internal carbon accounting logic will be unable to generate structured carbon data that meets the requirements of the RCEP system. The main impacts are: official product pages must display verified carbon footprint values (not estimated or range values); carbon data must be verifiablely linked to country of origin declarations (e.g., through unified product coding); and some companies may need to re-evaluate their BOM-level carbon traceability paths.

Supply chain service companies

This includes origin certificate agencies, cross-border customs SaaS service providers, and carbon management platforms. If their existing service modules are not adapted to the e-CO + Carbon Passport dual-link automatic issuance logic (e.g., they do not support the injection of structured data from the official website, or lack the ability to connect to customs AI verification interfaces), they will face the risk of customer migration. The impact manifests as: service delivery standards upgrading from 'document issuance' to 'official website data readiness + system verification passed'; and the need for lightweight integration capabilities with enterprise website CMS or ERP systems.

What key areas should relevant businesses or practitioners focus on, and how should they respond at present?

Pay attention to the successive release of customs implementation rules by RCEP member countries.

The current announcement is jointly issued by the ASEAN Secretariat, but specific implementation details (such as mandatory carbon data fields, verification tolerance thresholds, and transitional arrangements) will be announced in stages by the customs authorities of each importing country. Companies need to continuously monitor updates on the official websites of the General Administration of Customs of China, the Customs Bureau of the Ministry of Finance of Japan, and the Korea Customs Service, and should not rely solely on the joint announcement for technological upgrades.

Differentiate between key product categories and key markets, and prioritize the adaptation of highly sensitive export items.

The announcement explicitly covers electromechanical, new energy, and light industrial products, but not all subcategories will be implemented simultaneously. For example, products already included in the green procurement lists of many countries, such as photovoltaic modules, lithium battery energy storage equipment, and small motors, are more likely to be included in the first batch of AI verification pilot categories. Enterprises should refer to their country's HS code list to identify specific products under this year's RCEP that have high export frequency, large value, and belong to green procurement-oriented categories, and prioritize the completion of their official website page modifications.

The website redesign was positioned as a data governance initiative, rather than simply a front-end development task.

The e-CO+Carbon Passport dual-link requirement for the official website to output structured data essentially aims to drive enterprises to standardize the external expression of their internal control data assets, such as carbon footprint calculation results and origin determination logic. Currently, it's more accurately understood as the need to simultaneously initiate carbon data source analysis (e.g., upstream material carbon coefficients, emission statistics at plant boundaries), origin standard mapping (e.g., RCEP cumulative rule applicability assessment), and Schema.org compatibility upgrades to the official website's CMS template. All three are indispensable.

Collaborate with customs agents and carbon consultants in advance to verify and test the access capabilities of the testing environment.

While the RCEP official system testing portal has not yet been publicly announced, some member countries (such as Singapore and New Zealand) have opened sandbox environments for companies to conduct pre-testing. Companies should work with existing service providers or third-party carbon management platforms to confirm whether they have access to the testing channel and can generate sample data packages (including e-CO signature hashes and Carbon Passport digital fingerprints) that meet AI verification requirements, in order to avoid last-minute adaptation.

Editor's Viewpoint / Industry Observation

Observably, this launch is not merely a technical system rollout, but rather the first institutional coupling of trade facilitation and climate governance rules under the RCEP framework. Analysis shows that its core binding force does not currently stem from punitive clauses, but rather from two practical transmission mechanisms: 'customs clearance delays' and 'removal from the green buyer whitelist'—the former affecting cash flow, and the latter affecting long-term order acquisition. From an industry perspective, this mechanism currently signals a strong shift: rules of origin are moving from 'compliance baselines' to 'green competitiveness infrastructure'; and the official website is no longer just a marketing interface, but is becoming a legal data entry point for cross-border trade. The system is not yet fully operational across all RCEP members, and phased implementation remains to be confirmed.

In conclusion, the launch of the RCEP 'Green Origin AI Verification System' marks a new stage in origin management that emphasizes both data-driven approaches and low-carbon orientation. It is not a one-off policy inspection, but rather a continuous test of enterprises' carbon data governance capabilities, website technical architecture, and cross-departmental collaboration mechanisms. Currently, it is more accurately understood as a compliance process that has been initiated, implemented in stages, but whose implementation details are still evolving. Enterprises should start with the 'minimum viable option' and focus on key products and critical markets, avoiding a blanket approach.

Information source explanation:
Main source: RCEP Green Trade Upgrade Announcement issued by the ASEAN Secretariat in conjunction with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand on May 2, 2026.
The following areas require continued monitoring: the timeline for the release of customs implementation rules by each RCEP member country, the technical specification documents for the e-CO+Carbon Passport dual-link system (such as schema definitions and API interface descriptions), and the timeline for the full system launch.