TradeLane

Being audited is pretty unpleasant. Having people go through your things in minute detail looking for mistakes you have made. Most companies’ normal reactions to a customs audit in Korea is probably ‘Why us?’ or ‘We are doing just fine’.

Well, unfortunately it looks like customs auditors have different views on how well companies are doing on customs compliance. In 2013, the Korea Customs Service imposed $200 million USD in additional duties collected through customs audits and investigations; more than 4.4 times the 2012 figure. And this number has been steadily growing ever since.

On April 5, 2016, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China released a joint announcement (No. 11 of 2016), which published a list of products that are embargoed in trade with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

It was alleged in the announcement that the embargoes are based on the relevant resolutions enacted by United Nations Security Council and the Foreign Trade Law of P. R. China.

On January 16 2016, the United States announced that they are lifting certain US sanctions against Iran that are consistent with the announcement of Implementation Day and in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The United States Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released a general guidance document regarding the lifting of US sanctions under the JCPOA.

On March 26, 2016, China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) announced a revision of the import and export declaration forms (GAC Announcement, No. 20 of 2016).

The revision has accommodated and consolidated all the legislative changes made by Customs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, and National Reform and Development Commission etc. ever since 2008, which are relevant to, or have impact on, import and export declaration process. Considering the number of fields that have been changed or added, the revision is unprecedented in past decades.

I used to live in the USA. I spent a year in Corvallis, Oregon when I was ten years old. I remember it as one of the happiest times in my life, except for being confused about my national identity. Most of my elementary school classmates thought that I was from North Korea. This is not surprising since the North Korea nuclear issue had been surfacing at that time during George H. W. Bush’s presidency. North Korea is still a frequent topic on the famous American TV show, Conan, to this day.