The government will take action to block circumvention exports such as 'Korean disguise' in preparation for the high tariff measures of the United States. Recently, cases have emerged where goods from some countries are laundered as Korean products and exported to the U.S., prompting the Korea Customs Service to mobilize its response system. A comprehensive support system for small and medium-sized exporting corporations will also be established.
The Korea Customs Service announced the 'Tariff Administration Response Strategy in Response to U.S. Administration Tariff Policies' during the Foreign Economic Ministers' Meeting chaired by Vice Minister Choi Sang-mok on the 11th.
The key point is to block 'circumvention exports from third countries' disguised as Korean products. The Korea Customs Service will proactively verify high-risk items where the origin has been laundered among semi-finished and finished goods exported to the U.S. via Korea. In particular, it plans to focus on managing high-risk types, such as cases where goods are sent back to the U.S. directly through domestic bonded areas without customs clearance, or where the same corporations export and import the same items while reporting different origins.
The Korea Customs Service has recently created selective criteria based on detected cases and will strengthen origin inspections at the customs clearance stage before shipment to the U.S. The domestic disguise exploiting the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement will also be subject to checks. The agency plans to share high-risk information with the U.S. side to support local detection.
A Korea Customs Service official noted, 'If our country is misidentified as a transshipment point for circumvention exports, the country's origin credibility may drop, which could lead to additional regulations from the U.S. We need to take preemptive action to protect national interests.'
The government will also activate a multi-departmental collaboration system to support small and medium-sized exporters. The Korea Customs Service will establish a hotline with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Export Support Center to enhance the quality and quantity of overall export counseling. It will also participate in the 'Export Business Support One Team' with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation to back emergency export measures.
The response capability to U.S. tariff policies will also be strengthened. The Korea Customs Service will mobilize channels such as the Korea-U.S. Customs Authorities Cooperation Meeting next month to expand information sharing with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the U.S. Additionally, it will produce and provide materials linked to the item classification table (HS code) of Korea and the U.S. to industry associations and plans to operate a 'U.S. Item Classification Consultation Center' within the Customs Evaluation and Classification Agency.
Furthermore, the Korea Customs Service decided to exempt the 'error points' that were imposed during the correction of export report errors and ease the export customs procedures for steel products to reduce the burden on exporting corporations.