720,000 Substandard Toys and More Seized at Customs Checkpoint for Failing Safety Standards

Field Data on Safety Inspections of Gifts Such as Toys for Family Month. Provided by Korea Customs Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A total of 720,000 units of toys and other products that failed to meet safety standards were detected at the customs clearance stage and did not pass through customs.

The Korea Customs Service announced on the 30th that from the 4th to the 29th of last month, it conducted a focused safety inspection at the customs clearance stage in cooperation with the National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, identifying 720,000 products that did not comply with safety standards.

The focused inspection was carried out to examine the safety of gift items such as toys and sports goods, whose imports increase just before Family Month, with the aim of preemptively blocking the distribution of illegal imported products in the domestic market.

The inspection targeted 14 categories (1.77 million units in 801 cases), including toys, sports goods such as tricycles and bicycles, batteries for beauty devices, and electric heating pads. Among these, the Korea Customs Service and the National Institute of Technology and Standards judged that 720,000 units in 286 cases across 12 categories failed to meet safety standards and blocked their distribution in the market.

The main violations were products that did not receive safety certification, falsely labeled information, or failed to comply with labeling standards.

By category, toys accounted for the largest number of detected units at 710,000 (218 cases), followed by batteries with 10,000 units (22 cases), and sports safety helmets with 2,000 units (11 cases).

Graph showing the trend of illegal product detection rates during safety inspections at the customs clearance stage for imported products over the past six years. Provided by the Korea Customs Service.

The Korea Customs Service and the National Institute of Technology and Standards will allow importers to correct minor violations so that the products can be cleared through customs. For products found to be non-compliant in analytical tests or those that fail to be corrected, they will be disposed of or returned to the exporting country.

Both agencies stated, “We will strengthen pre-clearance inspections by focusing on products expected to increase seasonally, recalled products domestically and internationally, and items of social interest to prevent illegal imported products from circulating in the domestic market.”

Meanwhile, over the past six years, the two agencies have continuously expanded and promoted joint inspections at the customs clearance stage for electrical, household goods, and children’s products. As a result, the detection rate of illegal products last year decreased by 7.4 percentage points compared to 2016, showing an effect in blocking the entry of hazardous products.

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