Korea Customs Service announces plan to closely support small business owners entering overseas markets

The Korea Customs Service announced that it has prepared a “Customs Administration Support Plan for Small Business Export Enterprises” that provides support throughout the entire cycle from the export preparation stage to the post-export local customs clearance stage for small business owners wishing to export or develop overseas sales channels, and will focus on implementing it starting in September. did.

Small business owners are companies with less than 5 full-time employees (10 in manufacturing, etc.) and with average 3-year sales for each industry below the standard. There are a total of 7.335 million, accounting for 95.0% of all companies (Ministry of SMEs and Startups basic small and medium-sized business). Statistics, as of August 2023).

This support plan was established to secure a sustainable growth engine by enabling small business owners, who are facing increasing management difficulties due to high interest rates and high inflation, to convert from a focus on domestic demand to export companies.

In addition, we plan to support small business owners who are having difficulties with origin verification through origin verification response support projects and origin verification response briefing sessions. Origin verification is an administrative procedure in which the customs office of the importing country confirms whether the country of origin requirements of imported goods applied for preferential tariffs under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are met. In case of violation, the application of preferential tariffs may be excluded.

Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, Ko Gwang-hyo, explained, “Recently, export growth has continued, but in a situation where domestic demand recovery is weak, we have come up with a plan to support export conversion to resolve the management difficulties of small business owners.” He added, “Going forward, the Korea Customs Service will focus its capabilities on exports of small business owners.” “We will actively work to expand,” he said.

Editor. Seyeong Hong