[Reporter’s Notebook] Nonsensical Explanation from the Korea Customs Service

원본보기 아이콘

There is a voice that could not be included in the report titled ‘Betrayal by the Korea Customs Service,’ which our newspaper started on the 3rd. It is the story of import company representatives who brought Peruvian mung beans into the country, involving domestic family conflicts, severe mental stress, and stories of inevitably becoming credit delinquents.

The issue began with ‘proof of origin.’ The Korea Customs Service notified import companies to prove the origin of Peruvian mung beans. The Customs Service demanded bank account statements, accounting books, and tax reports from Peruvian companies, and even cultivation details from farmers. Failure to meet these requirements meant paying a tariff of 607.5%.

The Customs Service’s stance that the level of document submission is not excessive is nonsense. Not only Yoon Tae-sik, the Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, but also the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the competent authority, knows that Peru’s origin certification system is insufficient. How can private import companies obtain documents that even the government cannot? I want to ask the Commissioner directly about the cultivation details. Are you saying that farmers who cannot even write had to record cultivation details every day?

Nevertheless, the customs authorities say ‘all procedures are lawful.’ That is correct. They know the backward reality of Peru, that the country signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), that it actively promoted imports and exports, that it failed to accurately detect smuggling suspicions, but in any case, proof of origin is the importer’s responsibility. This is truly the customs authorities’ ‘administrative convenience’ obsessed only with regulations.

Entrepreneurs say that taking charge of import operations is a crime. They say they will never import agricultural products again. If smooth imports do not occur, domestic consumers will ultimately suffer. Mung beans are mainly used in common people’s foods such as Bindaetteok (mung bean pancakes), Cheongpomuk (mung bean jelly), and Kalguksu (knife-cut noodles). If expensive domestic mung beans must be used instead of cheap imported ones, food prices will inevitably rise.

In addition, the Commissioner must personally look into the customs’ high-handed attitude, interpreter controversies, and inappropriate investigation methods that caused controversy in Peru. The National Assembly must make legislative efforts to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Administrative convenience that only looks at regulations must disappear. That is what the people want and what past governments have promised: a just and ‘proactive administration.’

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