# BR-CL-15 Item country of origin must use ISO 3166-1

The item country of origin code (BT-159) must be coded using ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.

## Problem Description

> **ERROR**: EN 16931 code-list rule (BR-CL)

## Context and Significance

BT-159 states where an item was made, for example for customs and origin statements. The value usually comes from item master data and fails when it holds a country name ("China"), a three-letter code (CHN) or a region such as "EU", which is not an ISO 3166-1 country code. Clean up origin data in the item master rather than at invoice export. Example: goods made in Türkiye use BT-159 = TR; goods labelled "Made in EU" need the actual country, such as DE, or no BT-159.

## Solution

Set BT-159 to a two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code in capital letters, such as CN, TR or IT (UBL: cac:Item/cac:OriginCountry/cbc:IdentificationCode; CII: ram:SpecifiedTradeProduct/ram:OriginTradeCountry/ram:ID). If no single country of origin is known, omit BT-159.

- [Validate XML](/en/xrechnung-validator?source=resource&rule=BR-CL-15)
- [Convert invoice](/en/pdf-to-xrechnung?source=resource&rule=BR-CL-15)

## Valid Examples

- BT-159 = CN
- BT-159 = TR

## Invalid Examples

- BT-159 = EU — a region, not an ISO 3166-1 country code
- BT-159 = CHN — three letters, not alpha-2
- BT-159 = China — country name

## Code Examples

### Valid XML
```
<cac:OriginCountry>
  <cbc:IdentificationCode>CN</cbc:IdentificationCode>
</cac:OriginCountry>
```

### Invalid XML
```
<cac:OriginCountry>
  <cbc:IdentificationCode>EU</cbc:IdentificationCode>
</cac:OriginCountry>
```

## Affected Fields

- [BT-159 Item country of origin](/resources/xrechnung/bt-159-item-country-of-origin)

## Related Rules

- [BR-CL-14](/resources/kosit-validator-errors/br-cl-14-iso-3166-country-codes)

## Validation Tools

- [Official KoSIT Validator](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/validator): Run the official KoSIT validator with the XRechnung configuration to check EN 16931 and XRechnung rules.
- [Convert PDF to XRechnung](/pdf-to-xrechnung): Find validation errors during conversion and review each correction.

## Related Resources

- [Official Specification](https://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/rules/ubl-tc434/)
- [Test Suite](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/xrechnung-testsuite)
- [All validation errors](/resources/kosit-validator-errors): Overview of the EN 16931, XRechnung and Peppol validation rules explained here.