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July 12, 2013

2013.07.12

FAS/Seoul Monitoring of Media Reporting on Agricultural Issues
Today's Date:   Friday  July 12, 2013
For Coverage:  July 09 - 12, 2013

 

  

1. BILATERAL/MULTILATERAL ISSUES

 

¡°The level of agricultural market opening under Korea – China FTA will be lower than KORUS FTA¡± (Korean, WMJ)

http://www.nongmin.com/article/ar_detail.htm?ar_id=219541&subMenu=articletotal

Summary: Minister of ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) disclosed that in Korea-China FTA, the level of agricultural market opening will be lower than KORUS FTA.  He said, both presidents agreed on high-level of market opening, but it means just higher than other FTA that China has signed.  And he gave a plan and a direction about agricultural market opening roughly.  To except sensitive items from subject is also one of them.
 

Poor analysis on the effect of KORUS FTA (Korean, WMJ)

http://news.kukinews.com/article/view.asp?page=1&gCode=kmi&arcid=0007362261&cp=nv

Summary:  The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) announced that the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) analyzed the effect of KORUS FTA in a wrong way.  In the MOSF¡¯s analysis, damage from KORUS FTA is estimated too high in fishery and fruit field without considering the current SPS issues.  And the support strategy for damaged farms from KORUS FTA is also disclosed ineffective.  BAI requests current ministers for Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) to review the former analysis carefully.  

 

2. MARKETING ISSUES

 

Discussion on expansion of GMO Labeling (Korean, WMJ)

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201307091732182&code=900303

Summary: On July 9th, ¡®Discussion on GMO labeling and the right to know¡¯ was held.  At now, the GMO labeled products are required to mark 5th raw material that they are contained. But some insisted that we should mark whole materials that GMO labeled products included, insisted by Ha Jung Chul, a team leader of food and drug safety in Korea Consumer Agency.  He argued it is related to the right to know for consumers.  But the opposite side insisted that there was a concern about the side effect of expansion as well.  It can make people grow away from GMO more.
 

A vegetable price in monsoon period is showing ¡®recessionary stability¡¯  (Korean, WMJ)

http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20130712018017

Summary:  According to Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), price of most agricultural products hasn¡¯t been changed largely after the monsoon period begins except for a few items.  But MAFRA has a stance that it has not only good aspect because it occurs by reduced consumer demand due to recession basically.  

 

3. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

 

Further Info Request from FAS/Washington on a Media Clipping (July 9, 2013)

 

Korea Customs Service decided to change the way to impose the tariff on agricultural products. (Korean, WMJ)

http://economy.hankooki.com/lpage/economy/201307/e2013070717553270070.htm

Summary: Korea Customs Service (KCS) disclosed that they decided to change the way to impose the tariff on imported agricultural products.  Many importers make a false return of an import price to take a customs evasion.  Because of that situation, KCS plans to change the way to impose tariffs.  According the KCS, customs value will be calculated by an on-the-spot investigation, not declaration of importer anymore.

 

Full Text : A tariff on imported agricultural products will be imposed on the basis of the price investigated in exporting country, not by the importer¡¯s declaration anymore.

Under an existing regulations, the customs value is decided by the importer¡¯s declaration (how much they paid for buying products), but many importers declare import price lower than they really paid for making the customs value be decided lower. Because of that situation, Korea Customer Service (KCS) disclosed that they decided to change the way to calculate customs value at July 7th.

This is a follow-up action by KCS after the passage of revision of Customs Act, which reflects the recent court¡¯s ruling in last May that it is proper that the customs value calculated by combining investigated purchase price in farm area by a reputable organization and extra costs admitted by KCS. 

Until now, it is difficult to decide a fair customs value even though there are many false declarations of agricultural products (beans, mung beans and garlic with 300 to 400 percent tariffs) for taking customs evasion.  Because the agricultural products have variable price and also its quality is irregular.  An official in KCS said ¡°According to revision, we¡¯ll impose a proper tariff on agricultural products by building up collaboration with reputable organization such as Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (AT), Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI)¡±

 

BYK¡¯s translation of the Press release put out by Korea Customs Service:     

 

Korea Customs Service

Press Release

Press Release Date

July 7, 2013

Distribution date

July 5, 2013

Division

Legal Affairs for Innovation of Restrictions

Director

Hee Min (042-481-7680)  (010-8131-1945)

Officer in charge

Attorney Moon Ki Choi

(042-481-7955)   

(010-4155-7049)

Establishment of New Principle for Imposition of Taxes for Removal of Undervalued Reporting of Import Prices

Determine the Price for Calculating the Price for Imposition of Taxes, such as Tariffs, based on Overseas Price Survey

 

¡Þ     A court decision, first of its kind, has been made that it is rational for Korea Customs Service (Administrator: Woon Chan Baek) to impose duties based on the price survey that was made by a third party agency with public confidence in order to eliminate the undervalue reporting of import prices of agricultural products.

                 The Seoul High Court recently ruled that ¡°The price for calculating the duty based on the farm procurement price that was surveyed through an agency with public confidence after adding the incidental costs recognized by the plaintiff was in accordance with the rational standard as provided in Article 35 of the Customs Act.¡±

                 There have been difficulty up to now in determining the proper price for imposing the duty on agricultural products such as soybean, mung beans, garlic, etc., where the duty rate is 300-400%, and where there were cases where the import report price was being undervalued in order to avoid paying the due duties. 

¡Þ     The Korea Customs Service has been in the process of revising the Customs Act since May in order to clearly have the content of the court ruling stipulated in the statute, and is about to enforce this regulation (mid-July).  We hope that we will be able to eliminate the undervalue reporting of agricultural products that is being a threat to the domestic farmers livelihood and something that has been encouraging evasion of duties. 

¡Þ     The Korea Customs Service plans to purse follow-up measures soon, such as the establishment of a cooperation system with third party agencies with public confidence, such as aT, Korea Rural Economic Institute, etc., in order to enhance the efficiency of the revisions being made to the Customs Act. 

                 At the same time, in order to immediately legalize or systemize the taxation rationale that has been recognized as being appropriate and rational through a court decision, such as this case, we plan to re-enforce the reflux system of court decisions.

      ¡Þ   The aforementioned court decision that resulted in the revision of the Customs Act was possible due to the fact that the newly established Customs Lawsuit Team was able to win the legal dispute as it had carefully prepared the case from the beginning of the lawsuit, such as review of the requirements for imposing duties, analysis of similar court decisions, etc.

                 The Customs Lawsuit Team (9 teams composed of 34 people) was established in September 2012.  They are fully responsible for the lawsuits at Korea Customs Service headquarter and Headquarter Customs Office, depending on the importance and degree of difficulty.

                 After the establishment of this team, it has contributed in securing the taxation right of Korea Customs Service by winning legal disputes amounting to 116.2 billion won in total value of the lawsuit cases, which are the major lawsuits that are worth over 5 billion won in lawsuit value or cases where the impact on Customs Administration is huge.

 

Status of Lawsuit Cases and Winning Rate of Lawsuits

 

2009

2010

2011

2012

June 2013

Number of lawsuit cases

47

83

86

137

52

Total Value of lawsuit (Billion won)

356.9

140.2

575.0

668.9

693.5

Winning Rate (%)

49

79

71

84

82

 

   

 

The information in this report was compiled by the Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. The press summaries contained herein do NOT reflect USDA, the U.S. Embassy, or other U.S. government agency official policy or view point. U.S. food exporters can learn more about market opportunities in South Korea by reviewing ATO Seoul¡¯s Exporter Guide and other reports available at www.fas.usda.gov by clicking on ¡°attaché reports

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Agricultural Trade Office, U.S. Embassy - Seoul
Tel: 82-2-6951-6848 Fax: 82-2-720-7921
Email: atoseoul@state.gov