Wholly Obtained or Produced refers to goods that originate entirely in a single country, with no foreign inputs. Such goods automatically qualify under any FTA's preferential origin rules without applying tariff shift or regional value content tests, and are equally clearly of that country's origin for non-preferential origin purposes.
Each FTA defines the wholly-obtained category, but the categories are similar across agreements. Typical wholly-obtained goods include:
- Live animals born and raised in the territory
- Goods obtained from live animals raised in the territory (milk, eggs, wool)
- Hunted, trapped, or fished within the territory or its territorial waters
- Agricultural and horticultural products grown and harvested in the territory
- Minerals and other natural resources extracted in the territory
- Fish, shellfish, and other marine life taken from the sea by vessels registered in and flying the flag of the territory
- Goods produced exclusively from wholly-obtained materials of the territory
- Waste and scrap derived from manufacturing operations in the territory or from used articles collected there
Vessel and aircraft criteria for marine and aerial harvest are often the trickiest. For USMCA, fish taken on the high seas qualify as wholly obtained if the vessel is registered or recorded in a USMCA party and entitled to fly its flag.
For accumulation purposes, wholly-obtained goods of one FTA party are treated as originating when used in another FTA party.
The "wholly obtained" category is most relevant for agricultural products, raw materials, and unprocessed commodities. For manufactured goods that contain any foreign inputs, the applicable tariff shift or RVC rule applies instead.