How Country of Origin Data Can Strengthen Supply Chain Resilience

Article Highlights:

• One of the most essential data points businesses are striving to obtain for their imports is country of origin (COO), which now plays a disproportionately large role in the costs associated with bringing foreign goods into the U.S. 
• Businesses shouldn’t think of country of origin as merely a classification trigger officers use when levying tariffs—COOs are consequential data points importers themselves can use to cultivate greater supply chain resilience.
• COO data can help procurement professionals make supply chain diversification decisions by giving them a full picture of where all their parts are coming from, and where the dependencies and potential future bottlenecks lie. 

Through its first four months alone, 2025 has been one of the most volatile years for international trade in decades. A raft of tariffs levied by the U.S. against other countries, retaliatory measures by those nations, and tit-for-tat escalations between America and many of its most important trading partners have created a tumultuous trade landscape. For many U.S. businesses and manufacturers that rely on global supply chains, the result has been a climate of uncertainty and fear. 

In the midst of this uncertainty and fear, however, organizations are learning that data visibility can help them enhance their agility and capacity to respond effectively to this dynamic new environment. The more firms grasp about their supply chains, direct and subtier manufacturers, and the complex pathways their imports take from raw materials to finished goods, the more resilience they’re able to foster. To achieve this supply chain resilience, companies are working to obtain a battery of different types of data. These include supply chain maps, Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes, and manufacturing site locations. 

One of the most essential data points businesses are now striving to obtain for their imports is country of origin (COO). Though it may seem more straightforward—even obvious—compared with multifaceted codes and labyrinthine supply chains, it now plays a disproportionately large role in the costs associated with importing goods into the U.S.

What Is Country of Origin, and Why Is It So Important?

A product’s country of origin, frequently abbreviated as its “COO,” refers to the nation where it was originally manufactured. More than just a fact related to a commodity, material, or good, COO is also a legal designation and enforceable requirement. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), “Every article of foreign origin entering the United States must be legibly marked with the English name of the country of origin unless an exception from marking is provided for in the law.”

Because many items now undergo manufacturing steps in a number of different countries en route to becoming the final product purchased by an importer, COO designation is not always immediately clear. For goods that are manufactured in multiple countries, Customs and Border Protection follows the legal principle of substantial transformation. As the U.S. International Trade Administration (ITA) outlines on its website, this principle stipulates that the COO of items made in multiple nations is determined by using the final country where a substantial transformation took place. 

The COO designation for imports may be the most impactful it has ever been this century. This is because the country of origin is the determining factor in most of the Trump administration’s tariffs. While President Trump has also implemented a number of sectoral tariffs since taking office in January, the past month has seen an unprecedented spike in the tariff rates for dozens of major trading partners worldwide. 

But businesses shouldn’t think of country of origin as merely a classification trigger officers use when imposing tariffs on their imports. Rather, COOs are consequential data points importers themselves can use to help increase awareness of their vulnerabilities and cultivate greater supply chain resilience.

Calculate Tariff Responsibilities

Organizations that know the COO of their imports are able to determine the tariff costs associated with them ahead of time. Moreover, they can also use analytics and data reporting tools to calculate their collective tariff responsibilities based on the total number of goods they import. 

This can help manufacturers understand costs and changes to overhead, and revise revenue forecasts for the remainder of 2025 and beyond. It also helps put total tariff costs in perspective, giving supply chain executives a single cogent number illustrating the full financial consequences of maintaining existing sourcing. 

Understand Country Dependencies

Beyond just giving importers the geographical data necessary to understand tariff costs, COO data also paints a picture of companies’ global supply chains—and the major dependencies embedded within them. A larger automotive manufacturer, for example, may import tens of thousands of components over the course of a single year, with over half of those parts being shipped to the U.S. from China. But without complete COO data, the automaker may not be aware of just how dependent they are on Chinese manufacturing for the production of their vehicles. 

Beyond just giving importers the geographical data necessary to understand tariff costs, COO data also paints a picture of companies’ global supply chains—and the major dependencies embedded within them.

In this way, COO data can serve as consequential supply chain risk management (SCRM) information, allowing businesses to see potential vulnerabilities in their supply chain stemming from an overreliance on specific countries. 

Gauge Exposure to Volatility and Future Trade Conflict

A proactive approach to supply chain risk management means keeping one eye on the future, trying to practice the “risk sensing” necessary to decipher where the next wave of threats are coming from. For example, while the 10% tariffs on major manufacturing nations like Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand may seem manageable today, those figures could shift dramatically after the Trump administration’s 90-day pause has expired. 

Being able to parse COO data can help organizations identify where potential future vulnerabilities lie—giving them the data-driven justification to develop and implement supply chain mitigation measures. A U.S. manufacturer importing primarily from China and a number of South Asian nations may want to diversify toward the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, where the risk of high tariff rates are considerably lower. 

Pinpoint Where Diversification Is Needed 

Few SCRM strategies are invoked as frequently as supply chain diversification. But while the idea of diversifying one’s suppliers and sourcing to encompass a variety of countries, manufacturers, and sites sounds relatively straightforward on the surface, it’s a nearly impossible task to execute without clear parameters or a narrowly defined scope. That’s because many large U.S. companies source tens of thousands of parts every year, working with hundreds of manufacturers across a multitude of countries and regions. It simply isn’t feasible—or strategically necessary—to secure alternative suppliers for 500 manufacturers, or carry out a complete overhaul of a complex supply chain that’s been built up over many years. 

But while the idea of diversifying one’s suppliers and sourcing to encompass a variety of countries, manufacturers, and sites sounds relatively straightforward on the surface, it’s a nearly impossible task to execute without clear parameters or a narrowly defined scope.

Instead, organizations need to approach supply chain diversification with a magnifying glass and a scalpel, identifying the specific parts and commodity categories that are most in need of broader, more diversified sourcing. COO data can help procurement professionals make these determinations by giving them a full picture of where all their parts are coming from, and where the dependencies and potential future bottlenecks lie. 

Start Re-Engineering Manufacturing Processes 

In the current trade environment, U.S. manufacturers are doing just about everything in their power to offset the high costs imposed by the Trump administration’s tariff regime. One leading-edge strategy in this emerging playbook is restructuring the manufacturing processes of  a given product or subassembly so that the final location of substantial transformation—which determines COO—shifts from a high-tariff country to a low-tariff one. While measures like these are complex and demand significant expertise, they can pay off in meaningful, lasting ways.

To start the work of engineering a new manufacturing process, however, businesses need to be able to parse the COOs of all their imports. With the full picture of where their parts and subassemblies are coming from, they can then decide which goods are worth implementing this resource-intensive process for. 

SCRM Technology Delivers COO Data 

When used effectively, COO data on products, parts, and subassemblies can give U.S. importers actionable insights into where their goods are being manufactured. By combining individual data points into larger reports on COO patterns and distributions across thousands of goods, firms can act decisively to mitigate tariff impacts and avoid future trade risks. SCRM platforms can be powerful resources for this type of risk management, giving users credible, up-to-date information on the COOs of hundreds millions of electronic components all over the world. 

SCRM software Z2Data can reveal critical dependencies with a unique Sourcing Status feature that allows users to:

• See the COO of millions of electronic components.
• Identify parts only being manufactured at a single site (single site dependency).
• Flag items only being made by a single manufacturer—a market dynamic that significantly increases the chance of obsolescence. 

Whether companies are looking to reduce dependencies on countries, regions, or manufacturers, Z2Data has the data to guide shrewd strategic actions. To learn more about Z2Data and how the platform can help businesses use COO data to mitigate risk across supply chains, schedule a free demo with one of our product experts.