Reasons for Proposal
The current Act imposes obligations on traders to label the place of origin for exported and imported goods and defines the basis to crack down on violations of such obligations and issue a certificate of origin for exported and imported goods.
Nevertheless, the Act states that goods finally produced using imported materials in the Republic of Korea (“goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea”) can be labeled as goods from Korea if material modifications are applied during the production of goods to assign original characteristics. Even though violations where “solar modules” produced by simply assembling Chinese solar cells (parts for solar modules) are labeled as Korean ones and distributed in Korea often occur, violations are left unaddressed due to the absence of the basis to crack down on them, and there is a lack of basis to issue a certificate of origin for goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea.
In this regard, this Act aims to newly insert obligations to label the place of origin for goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea if deemed required by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, the basis to crack down on violations of such obligations, and the basis to issue a certificate of origin for goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea, and update the punishment provision in an effort to establish order in distribution in the country.
Details
A. Impose obligations to label the place of origin for goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea on distributors and sellers if deemed required by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy and failure to do so will be subject to crackdown (Article 35 paragraphs 3 through 6 newly inserted).
B. Prepare the basis to issue a certificate of origin for goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea (Article 35-2 newly inserted).
C. Prepare a punishment provision for violations of obligations to label the place of origin for goods, etc., manufactured in the Republic of Korea (Article 53-2 subparagraph 3-2 newly inserted, and Articles 55 and 56).
