Korea Customs Service, Government-wide Cooperation in 'Origin Labeling Crackdown'

The Korea Customs Service announced on the 26th that it held the 'Origin Labeling Violation Enforcement Agencies Council' for the second half of this year at the Government Daejeon Complex.

Attending the council were origin labeling violation enforcement agencies including the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, the National Fisheries Products Quality Management Service, and 17 metropolitan cities and provinces.

At the council, each agency shared their enforcement performance and major trends regarding origin labeling violations for this year, and discussed key tasks to be prioritized going forward.

In particular, they agreed on systematizing inter-agency cooperation such as information sharing on agricultural and fishery product distribution history management items and conducting regular joint inspections, and enhancing response capabilities to protect domestic consumers through focused crackdowns on agricultural and fishery products with significant consumer harm and items closely related to daily life.

They also took time to present outstanding enforcement cases by each agency this year. Selected outstanding cases included the Korea Customs Service’s detection of 'domestically produced kitchenware origin mislabeling' and the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service’s detection of 'rebagging of Chinese soybeans,' with participating agencies sharing enforcement techniques and information.

The council is an intergovernmental consultative body established in 2014 to build a cooperative system including information and personnel exchanges among agencies regarding origin labeling violation enforcement, and to systematically crack down on illegal origin labeling violations from the import customs clearance stage through distribution and consumption stages.

The chairperson of the council is the Director of the Korea Customs Service Inspection Bureau. The council holds regular meetings twice a year with members convened from origin labeling violation enforcement agencies.

Son Seong-su, Director of the Korea Customs Service Inspection Bureau, said, “The council is a place where participating agencies share enforcement techniques and information and discuss the direction the council should take in the future,” adding, “The Korea Customs Service will strive to strengthen enforcement on items threatening public safety through inter-agency information sharing and joint inspections.”