by Jeong Ilwoong
Published 08 Jan.2025 09:12(KST)
The government will provide special support for the expedited customs clearance of Lunar New Year seasonal goods and to alleviate the financial burden on export companies.
On the 8th, the Korea Customs Service announced that it will implement special support measures to ensure the smooth supply of seasonal goods before the Lunar New Year holiday, as well as to prevent disruptions in exports and reduce financial burdens on companies.
The support measures focus on ▲ expedited customs clearance of Lunar New Year seasonal goods such as agricultural, livestock, and marine products, urgent raw materials, and overseas direct purchase express shipments ▲ timely shipment support for export cargo ▲ rapid customs refunds ▲ disclosure of import prices for agricultural, livestock, and marine products.
For expedited customs clearance support, from the 13th to the 30th, 34 customs offices nationwide will operate a ‘24-hour Special Customs Clearance Support Team’ to assist in ensuring that seasonal goods and urgently imported raw materials are supplied without customs clearance delays, even during holidays and nighttime.
In preparation for an increase in overseas direct purchase items around the Lunar New Year holiday, a ‘Special Express Shipment Customs Clearance Support Team’ will also be organized and operated at Incheon Airport and the Incheon and Pyeongtaek Customs offices. This support team will assist in the rapid customs clearance of overseas direct purchase items.
The Korea Customs Service also plans to strengthen safety inspections of imported food during the special support period to proactively block the entry of illegal and hazardous food products.
Additionally, when companies request an extension of the shipment period for export cargo, the request will be processed immediately to prevent disadvantages such as fines for failure to ship within the designated period. Generally, export cargo must be shipped within 30 days after export declaration acceptance, and fines are imposed if this rule is violated.
The Korea Customs Service will also provide special customs refund support for export companies from the 14th to the 27th. When export companies apply for refunds, the refund will be paid on the same day of application (normally takes about 2 days on average). If the refund application is submitted after the bank’s closing time (4 p.m.), working hours will be extended (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.) to ensure that the refund payment is completed by the next morning.
To facilitate this, the appropriateness review of refunds will be conducted after the refund payment, starting from the 31st (after the holiday), and the submission of documents for the refund review will be minimized.
Furthermore, the Korea Customs Service will disclose import prices of agricultural, livestock, and marine products three times this month?on the 10th, 17th, and 24th?to help stabilize grocery prices. The disclosed items include 86 major agricultural, livestock, and marine products whose consumption typically increases around the Lunar New Year holiday, such as early-season garlic, sesame, perilla seeds, red pepper powder, soybean paste, soy sauce, and octopus.
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