China’s Reaction

China is applying more and more non-tariff barriers to products exported from South Korea.
China is applying more and more non-tariff barriers to products exported from South Korea.

 

It has been found that China is applying more and more non-tariff barriers to products exported from South Korea. It seems that this has to do with the South Korean government’s recent announcement on the deployment of the THAAD system in the Korean Peninsula. Experts are pointing out that the government needs to come up with measures against potential trade disputes.

The Hyundai Research Institute announced on July 12 that the number of China’s anti-dumping measures targeting such products dropped from 46 to eight between the period of 2000 to 2008 and the following seven-year period. Between the same periods, however, the number of sanitary and phytosanitary inspections and technical barriers jumped from 249 to 887 and from 507 to 681, respectively.

“China’s non-tariff barrier against South Korea began to be strengthened in 2000 in the wake of the garlic dispute, and it is taking various forms these days such as sanitary and phytosanitary barriers and technical barriers,” the research institute explained. 

China is increasingly rejecting customs clearance for minor reasons, too. Between 2013 and last year, a total of 499 South Korean products were subject to such rejections and processed food products accounted for 69.3% of the total. Poor packaging and poor labeling led to 100 and 39 rejections associated with processed food products, respectively.

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