Tariff Reduction
The Ministry of Strategy & Finance and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on November 30 that tariffs on 834 items are reduced on December 1 based on a change in regulations for the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement.
The expansion of the Information Technology Agreement was determined at a WTO meeting in December 2015 after 53 countries, including the United States, China, Japan and European ones, began their negotiations in May 2012.
The 834 items consist of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, materials used for manufacturing IT devices such as display films and adhesives, optical and imaging devices such as microscopes and lenses, medical appliances such as electrocardiographs and MRI machines, etc. 381 of the items are subject to immediate tariff elimination and the tariffs on 365 and the rest are scheduled to be eliminated over the course of three and five to seven years, respectively.
“The expansion of the Information Technology Agreement is expected to result in an increase in the export of those items by South Korean manufacturers,” the South Korean government mentioned, adding, “Those items manufactured by South Korean companies will be able to have a higher level of competitiveness based on the tariff reduction.”