TRADE AGREEMENT | TAA-DESIGNATED COUNTRIES

WHAT IS THE TAA (TRADE AGREEMENT ACT)

The Trade Agreements Act or shortly TAA is a Federal Law that governs trade agreements between the United States and other countries. One of the most important features of the Act is that it instructs the GSA and federal agencies to only procure products manufactured or substantially transformed in the U.S. or in one of the TAA-designated countries. The GSA country of origin must therefore be included in the TAA-compliant country list; otherwise, the product is considered non-TAA compliant and the GSA cannot continue purchasing under such a GSA contract. 

The TAA-compliant countries list can be found in the FAR-Clause-52.225-5, which is regularly updated.

WHAT IS TAA COMPLIANCE?

TAA compliance is nothing more than compliance with the Trade Agreement Act of 1974. However, since TAA-compliant countries often change, the exact definition of “TAA-compliant” may also change. So, the best definition of TAA compliance is as follows: your product is TAA compliant if it is either fully manufactured within the territory of one of the GSA-compliant countries, specifically those that are included in the list of TAA-compliant countries, or if it is substantially transformed in such countries.

On the contrary, if the product or any part of it was either manufactured in one of the non-TAA compliant countries and has not gone through a substantial transformation in a compliant jurisdiction (see below), the product is deemed non-TAA compliant. What is the “substantial transformation” mentioned above? The substantial transformation process means that a product must be modified or transformed significantly, and that modification must add something new to the product or alter its characteristics in a substantial way. If the product was substantially transformed in one of the TAA-approved countries, it is considered as manufactured in that country and hence becomes TAA compliant.

Products are considered TAA-compliant if they are manufactured or substantially transformed in the United States or any of the TAA-designated countries listed in the chart below. The TAA- designated country list is sourced from the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and is current as of September 2024.

TAA COMPLIANCE BY COUNTRY, 2024

Below is the most current TAA-compliant list of countries that your product may originate from (or be substantially transformed in) to be considered TAA-compliant in 2024. It is vital to check the TAA country list from time to time and make sure there are no significant changes due to politics, economical reasons, and such. Also, you should make sure that every component of your product is manufactured in Trade Agreement Act countries or at least was substantially transformed in one of them.

Moreover, there is growing attention to TAA compliance from contracting officers today. And while TAA compliance is still largely a self-certification procedure, it is your responsibility to check for TAA compliance and fix any compliance issues you find as soon as possible. At Diverse Government Contracts, Inc. we often receive complaints from our clients that some of their competitors abuse the TAA compliance mechanism, and try to use this as a reason to submit a protest and hence clear the federal market from unwanted competition, that wasn’t accurate and diligent enough to maintain TAA compliance for their products.

Changes to the TAA designated country list are infrequent; the last update occurred in November 2016 with the addition of Moldova and Ukraine. To directly access this clause of the FAR, please click here: Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.225-5, Trade Agreements.

1. Afghanistan
2. Angola
3. Antigua and Barbuda
4. Armenia
5. Aruba
6. Australia
7. Austria
8. Bahamas, or The Bahamas
9. Bahrain
10. Bangladesh
11. Barbados
12. Belgium
13. Belize
14. Benin
15. Bhutan
16. Bonaire
17. British Virgin Islands
18. Bulgaria
19. Burkina Faso
20. Burundi
21. Cambodia
22. Canada
23. Central African Republic
24. Chad
25. Chile
26. Colombia
27. Comoros
28. Costa Rica
29. Croatia
30. Curacao
31. Cyprus
32. Czechia, or Czech Republic
33. Democratic Republic of the Congo
34. Denmark
35. Djibouti
36. Dominica
37. Dominican Republic
38. El Salvador
39. Equatorial Guinea
40. Eritrea
41. Estonia
42. Ethiopia
43. Finland
44. France
45. Gambia, or The Gambia
46. Germany
47. Greece
48. Grenada
49. Guatemala
50. Guinea
51. Guinea-Bissau
52. Guyana
53. Haiti
54. Honduras
55. Hong Kong
56. Hungary
57. Iceland
58. Ireland
59. Israel
60. Italy
61. Jamaica
62. Japan
63. Kiribati
64. Laos
65. Latvia
66. Lesotho
67. Liberia
68. Liechtenstein
69. Lithuania
70. Luxembourg
71. Madagascar
72. Malawi
73. Mali
74. Malta
75. Mauritania
76. Mexico
77. Moldova
78. Montenegro
79. Montserrat
80. Morocco
81. Mozambique
82. Nepal
83. Netherlands
84. New Zealand
85. Nicaragua
86. Niger
87. North Macedonia
88. Norway
89. Oman
90. Panama
91. Peru
92. Poland
93. Portugal
94. Romania
95. Rwanda
96. Saba
97. Saint Kitts and Nevis
98. Saint Lucia
99. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
100. Samoa
101. Sao Tome and Principe
102. Senegal
103. Sierra Leone
104. Singapore
105. St. Eustatius
106. St. Maarten
107. Slovakia
108. Slovenia
109. Solomon Islands
110. Somalia
111. South Korea, or Republic of Korea
112. South Sudan
113. Spain
114. Sweden
115. Switzerland
116. Taiwan
117. Tanzania
118. Timor-Leste
119. Togo
120. Trinidad and Tobago
121. Tuvalu
122. Uganda
123. Ukraine
124. United Kingdom
125. Vanuatu
126. Yemen
127. Zambia 

NON-TAA COMPLIANT COUNTRIES LIST BELOW

Below are the Trade Agreement Act countries that are considered TAA non-compliant countries in 2024:

1. Albania
2. Algeria
3. Andorra
4. Argentina
5. Azerbaijan
6. Belarus
7. Bolivia
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina
9. Botswana
10. Brazil
11. Brunei
12. Burma
13. Cabo Verde
14. Cameroon
15. China
16. Cook Islands
17. Cuba
18. Côte d’Ivoire
19. Ecuador
20. Egypt
21. Eswatini
22. Fiji
23. Gabon
24. Georgia
25. Ghana
26. Holy See
27. India
28. Indonesia
29. Iran
30. Iraq
31. Jordan
32. Kazakhstan
33. Kenya
34. Kosovo
35. Kuwait
36. Kyrgyzstan
37. Lebanon
38. Libya
39. Malaysia
40. Maldives
41. Marshall Islands
42. Mauritius
43. Micronesia
44. Monaco
45. Mongolia
46. Namibia
47. Nauru
48. Nigeria
49. Niue
50. North Korea
51. Pakistan
52. Palau
53. Palestinian Territories
54. Papua New Guinea
55. Paraguay
56. Philippines
57. Qatar
58. Republic of the Congo
59. Russia
60. San Marino
61. Saudi Arabia
62. Serbia
63. Seychelles
64. South Africa
65. Sri Lanka
66. Sudan
67. Suriname
68. Syria
69. Tajikistan
70. Thailand
71. Tonga
72. Tunisia
73. Turkey (Türkiye)
74. Turkmenistan
75. United Arab Emirates
76. Uruguay
77. Uzbekistan
78. Venezuela
79. Vietnam
80. Zimbabwe 

WHO MAKES THE DETERMINATION OF TAA COMPLIANCE?

Technically, you do. You see, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection states that “the responsibility for making a determination of substantial transformation rests solely with the contractor”. Which means that it is your responsibility to check and maintain TAA compliance of your products. 

However, a GSA contracting officer or even your competitor may spot some TAA compliance issue and submit a protest to the General Services Administration. This may result in suspension or even cancellation of your GSA contract entirely!

ARE YOUR PRODUCTS ON GSA (MAS) MULTIPLE AWARD SCHEDULE TAA-COMPLIANT?

Unfortunately, there is not a quick and sure way to check if a product on the GSA Schedule is TAA compliant or not. You have to go the harder way: contact the manufacturer and request compliance documents. Sometimes, you may need to go deeper and ask for compliance documents for parts of the product that are assembled into the final product. Overall, it is your responsibility to request all the compliance documents, check supply chains for compliance, and make sure that third-part components used in the product are from GSA-approved countries.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR GSA SCHEDULE CONTRACTS TAA COMPLIANT?

Maintaining TAA compliance with your GSA contract means keeping all and every aspect of your product TAA compliant. And this means a lot of work of learning the country of origin for every single product on your price list. Moreover, you should maintain your TAA compliance constantly, as this isn’t a one-time affair.

When you have just so many products sold to the government, you can maintain TAA compliance with your own capabilities. But what if you have hundreds or even thousands of products? What if these products have multiple versions and models? Manual tracking of whether a product originates from a TAA-compliant country would then consume all of your time! And you have business to conduct,  aside from monitoring changes in the TAA countries list. In this case, we recommend hiring a GSA contracting specialist, such as Diverse Government Contracts, Inc. Experienced professionals have their own ways to quickly checking TAA-compliance of a product. They can discover the true country of origin and see if it is one of the Trade-Act compliant countries or not.