. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/KOR/154 
9 March 2004 
 (04-1019) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION  
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   REPUBLIC OF KOREA
 
If applicable, name of local government involved: 
2. Agency responsible:   Korea Food and Drug Administration 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item numbe r(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Imported foods 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:  Any 
trading partners 
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:   Inspection Guidelines for 
Imported Foods (Available in Korean, 33 pages) 
6. Description of content:  For the interest of facilitating the trade in foods, the KFDA has 
proposed the following revision to the above Inspection Guidelines: 
• Relaxing of the current requirement for im ported food products to receive regular 
mandatory laboratory inspections at certain intervals by introducing a system for designating certain imported food products to be exempted from such inspection 
requirements on the basis of analysis of the products’ accumulated database of past 
laboratory inspections, employing such criteria as country of origin, type of food, and type of risk.  The food products thus exempted from the mandatory lab 
inspection requirement will be allowe d importation on the basis of import 
declaration documents alone.   
 
• Relaxing of inspection requirements for imported agricultural produce subject to 
pesticide residue inspections.  The pesticid e residue inspection items that have not 
been detected in the course of inspecti ons over a certain period of time may be 
tested for by means of random sampling inspection and/or monitoring inspection instead of the previously required laboratory inspection. 
 
• Those imported food products that have already passed the laboratory inspections 
within the past three years will be re quired to receive a dditional laboratory 
inspections only for such standards and specifications that have since been 
strengthened, newly introduced, and/or am ended.  The standards and specifications 
for imported agricultural produce subject to pesticide residue inspections are to be 
revised in accordance with the resu lts of the monitoring inspection. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [ X ] food safety, [   ] animal health, [   ] plant protection, 
[  ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ]  protect territory from other 
damage from pests G/SPS/N/KOR/154 
Page 2  
 
 8. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [   ] International Plant Protection Convention, [ X ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate 
reference and briefly identify deviations:  
9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  The Korea Food and 
Drug Administration Advance Notice No. 2004-14, 4 March, 2004 (Available in Korean) 
10. Proposed date of adoption:   To be determined. 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:   To be determined. 
12. Final date for comments:  To be determined. 
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [   ] National notification 
authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, or  address, fax number and E-mail address (if 
available) of other body:    
Documents are available from the Korea Food and Drug Administration website at 
www.kfda.go.kr  .  Also available from:   
 International Trade & Legal Affairs Office 
 Korea Food and Drug Administration  #5 Nokbun-dong. Eunpyung-Ku  Seoul, 122-704 Korea 
 Tel: (82 2) 380 1661 
 Fax: (82 2) 356 2893  E-mail: wtokfda@kfda.go.kr
 
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National notificati on authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, 
or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body: 
Documents are available from the Korea Food and Drug Administration website at 
www.kfda.go.kr  .  Also available from:   
 International Trade & Legal Affairs Office 
 Korea Food and Drug Administration  #5 Nokbun-dong. Eunpyung-Ku  Seoul, 122-704 Korea  Tel: (82 2) 380 1661 
 Fax: (82 2) 356 2893 
 E-mail: wtokfda@kfda.go.kr