Korea Forest Service and Korea Customs Service to Inspect 'Imported Timber Safety' from Customs Clearance Stage

Provided by Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service announced on the 14th that, in cooperation with the Korea Customs Service, it will conduct safety inspections of wooden products at the customs clearance stage from this month until the end of the year.

Fuel-type wooden products such as wood pellets, molded charcoal, and charcoal, which are used immediately after customs clearance, are difficult to manage in distribution, making inspections at the customs clearance stage very important.

For the same reason, the Korea Forest Service and the Korea Customs Service have been conducting joint inspections at the customs clearance stage annually since 2016.

In particular, the two agencies started with one customs office in the first year (2016) and have increased the number of customs offices conducting inspections each year, expanding to 16 customs offices as of 2019.

The safety inspection at the customs clearance stage is conducted according to the 'Customs Act' and the 'Act on the Sustainable Use of Timber,' involving checking the specifications, quality inspection, and labeling of wooden products before customs clearance.

Additionally, samples of the products are collected and sent to specialized testing institutions for inspection, and products that fail to meet the inspection standards are either returned in full or disposed of.

This is significant in preventing social harm caused by defective wood pellets containing large amounts of heavy metals and substandard molded charcoal and charcoal circulating and being used in the market, considering that over 80% of the domestic consumption of wooden products is imported from overseas.

Ha Kyung-su, Director of the Wood Industry Division at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Through inter-ministerial cooperation, we will do our utmost to secure public safety by preventing the import and distribution of substandard wooden products in advance,” and added, “We ask related companies to voluntarily comply with regulations for the safety of the public and the sound distribution of wooden products.”