Turkish government demands for verification of origin of Korean products soar... Difficulties of exporters

This year's Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partner Turkey's request to verify the country of origin has skyrocketed, causing difficulties for domestic exporters. According to the Korea Customs Service on the 10th, in the first half of this year, Turkey's customs authorities made 1,181 requests for verification of origin to 442 exporting companies, which is a 16-fold increase from 27 and 73 in the first half of last year.

In particular, 891 (85%) requests for verification of origin were concentrated in the 'chemical and plastics industry' field. The FTA partner country is exempt from customs duties, but the Turkish government's request for the Korean Customs Service to verify that the products exported to Turkey as 'made in Korea' are genuine Korean products has exploded.

Seven years after the Korea-Turkey FTA went into effect, it is unclear why the demand for country of origin verification suddenly surged this year. According to the Customs Service, the Turkish government made minor formal mistakes, such as the reason that the declaration of origin was included in the invoice issued by a seller in a third country among the parties to the transaction, rather than a document issued by the exporter, or in a document issued by a producer in Korea. As a result, the number of requests for verification of origin has increased significantly. There have even been cases of Korean exporting companies requesting verification of origin on the grounds that they have entered unnecessary 'certified exporter number' in documents.'

The country of origin verification process usually takes several months after undergoing investigations by a customs officer. The Turkish government's influx of requests for verification of origin not only increased the administrative demand from the Customs Service, but the exporting company is also burdened with delays in exports. An official from the Korea Customs Service said, "We inquired about the reason for the surge in the number of requests for verification of origin to Turkish officials in Korea, but we did not receive an official answer.

Accordingly, the Korea Customs Service prepared and implemented the 'Turkey Export Validation Response Guidelines', such as shortening the verification period and simplifying verification of repeated requests, while also informing the industry of this situation and urging them to follow the 'Precautions for preparing a declaration of origin'. In addition, the customs office explained that it had consulted with the Turkish customs authorities, such as requesting refraining from repeated requests from the same company. The Korea Customs Service analyzed that thanks to these efforts, Turkey's request for verification of origin decreased to a total of 35 cases in July and August.