. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/KOR/415 
19 December 2012  
 (12-6931) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  REPUBLIC OF KOREA  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :    
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Environment-friendly 
agricultural and fishery products, processed or ganic foods and materials for organic farming 
and fish farming. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Enforcement ordinance 
and enforcement regulations on the Act on Prom otion of Environment- friendly Agriculture 
and Fisheries, and Management and Support fo r Organic Foods (20 pages for Presidential 
Ordinance and 189 pages for enforcement re gulations, available in Korean).    
6. Description of content:  The main amended contents in this document are as follows:  
Enforcement Ordinance: - Designated bodies delegated to conduct  evaluation for designating and renewing 
organic foods certifyi ng bodies (Article 3); 
- Established a detailed fine schedule as the amount of the fine was increased with 
amendment of Article 62 (Article 5). 
Enforcement Regulations: - Selected materials allowed to be used for promotion of environment-friendly 
agriculture and fisheries sectors and manage ment of organic foods, set criteria and 
establish process (Article 2, Annex 1, 2); 
- Added organic fishery products to the list of items to be certified and included 
handlers (Article 7); 
- Established certification st andards needed for production, manufacturing, processing 
and handling of organic food s (Article 8,  Annex 3); 
- Designed regulation for preparation of e quivalence agreements as Article 25 of the 
Act introduced a clause on recognition of e quivalence, which is to take effect on 
1 January 2014 (Article 19-Article 24); G/TBT/N/KOR/415 
Page 2  
 
  - Strengthened follow-up measur es to maintain quality of  certified products and to 
solidify consumer tr ust (Article 34); 
- Made rules relevant to applicable products,  criteria, application process, compliance 
guidelines, follow-up measures  and succession for notifying allowed products to be 
used and certifying quality. Set up rules releva nt to designating testing and research 
institutions that can conduct tests on ma terials for organic farming (Article 42-
Article 65). 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
The amended Act integrated en vironment-friendly product cert ification system of each 
industry to strategically nurture  and support environment-friendly agriculture, fisheries and 
food industries, and to  improve the existing system by addressing its problems. This 
notification is follow-up changes of re levant regulations under the Act.  
8. Relevant documents:   Act on Promotion of Environment- friendly Agricultur e and Fisheries, 
and Management and Support for Organic foods (Amended on 1 June 2012, to be enforced on 
2 June 2013. Exception applies to the equivale nce clause, which is to take effect on 
1 January 2014). Relevant notification is G/TBT/N/KOR/407( 25 October 2012)   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    1 June 2013 
2 June 2013 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days after the date of notification 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:    
Environment-Friendly Agriculture Division of th e Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry 
and Fisheries (MIFAFF) Tel.:  +82-44-201-1872 Fax:  +82-44-868-0483 E-mail:  chds@korea.kr  
http://members.wto.org/crna ttachments/2012/tbt/KOR/12_4754_00_x.pdf  
http://members.wto.org/crna ttachments/2012/tbt/KOR/12_4754_01_x.pdf