123 Items Including Philippine Coffee, Palm Oil, and Automobiles to Have Tariffs Reduced Starting from the 6th

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seonhee] Tariffs on 123 items imported from the Philippines, including coffee, palm oil, and automobiles, will be reduced starting from the 6th.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on the same day that it plans to revise the "Mutual Response Tariff Rates Notice for Goods Originating from ASEAN Member Countries" to include this content and publish it in the official gazette.

Mutual response tariff rates refer to a system that aligns the tariff rates on imported goods between Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to the same level as the counterpart country. If the counterpart country designates certain items as sensitive items and maintains high tariff rates, Korea also applies high tariff rates to the same items, and conversely, if the counterpart country lowers tariff rates, Korea also reduces them.

"Sensitive items" are items agreed upon by the Korea-ASEAN FTA parties to maintain high tariff rates on a limited number of items to protect their domestic industries.

This measure was taken to lower the tariff rates to the same level in terms of applying mutual response tariff rates after the Philippine side notified the Korean government of the tariff rate reduction on 123 items designated as sensitive items.

In particular, tariffs on three items imported from the Philippines, including palm oil and automobile suspensions, will be set at 0%, meaning no tax will be imposed. For the other 120 items, including coffee, sugar confectionery, automobiles, and automobile parts, tariff rates will be reduced to between 0% and 5%.

The government plans to notify the Philippine government of this measure through diplomatic documents via the ASEAN Secretariat. As a result of this measure, the countries where mutual response tariff rates are maintained have been reduced to two out of the 10 ASEAN countries: the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance stated, "We will reaffirm mutual trust in the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN member countries and induce further abolition and reduction of remaining mutual response tariff rates," adding, "We also plan to continue efforts to resolve customs clearance difficulties related to export and import by our companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.