Korea Customs Service and Trade Commission Join Forces to Block Dumped Imports

The Korea Customs Service has joined forces with the Trade Commission to block the influx of dumped imports.

On September 12, the Korea Customs Service announced that it had signed a business agreement with the Trade Commission under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, agreeing to mutually cooperate in responding to the dumping of low-priced imports and the increase in circumvention industries.

Customs Service Commissioner Myungkoo Lee (right) is taking a commemorative photo with Trade Committee Chairman Jaehyung Lee after signing a business agreement at the Korea International Trade Association on the 12th. Photo by Customs Service

Under the agreement, the two agencies will share information necessary for anti-dumping investigations (Trade Commission), reviews of dumping transactions (Korea Customs Service), and responses to unfair trade practices. They will also strengthen cooperation in areas such as analyzing the effectiveness of anti-dumping measures and improving related laws and systems.

In addition, to enhance the effectiveness of the agreement, a "Anti-Dumping Consultative Body" consisting of director-level officials will be established to share cooperative activities and review outcomes on a semi-annual basis.

In particular, both agencies plan to focus on effectively blocking attempts to evade anti-dumping duties by promptly sharing industrial and customs clearance information related to the "Circumvention Dumping Prevention System."

The Circumvention Dumping Prevention System was introduced in January this year to impose anti-dumping duties on acts that attempt to evade such duties by changing the physical characteristics, form, packaging method, or usage of dumped goods within the scope that does not alter the essential nature of the goods from the exporting country.

Anti-dumping duties refer to additional tariffs imposed on the price difference when the price of imported goods (dumping price) is lower than the normal transaction price in the exporting country, causing harm to domestic industries.

Meanwhile, damages to domestic companies caused by the dumping of low-priced foreign products have continued to increase in recent years. As of the end of last month, domestic companies had filed a total of 11 anti-dumping investigation requests with the Trade Commission this year, already surpassing last year's total of 10 requests.

The annual number of anti-dumping requests has increased from 5 in 2020, to 6 in 2021, 6 in 2022, 8 in 2023, 10 in 2024, and 11 cases from January to August this year.

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