. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/KOR/407 
25 October 2012  
 (12-5829) 
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:  Environment-friendly Agriculture Di vision of the 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:  Notification to WTO 
on the Act on Promotion of Environment-fr iendly Agriculture and Fisheries, and 
Management and Support for Organi c Food (2 pages, in English). 
6. Description of content:  The main amended contents in this document are as follows:  
- Changed the title of the act from "Environm ent-friendly Agriculture Fosterage Act" 
to "Act on Promotion of Environment-fr iendly Agriculture and Fisheries, and 
Management and Support for Organic Foods." Integrated and streamlined 
environment-friendly agricultural and food products certifying system to establish 
more systemized mechanism of organic f oods certifying system and pesticide-free 
agricultural products certifying system  (Title, Article 19 and Article 34); 
- Newly created obligations  of certified operators a nd certifying bodies. Added 
penalties other than revocation of certific ates, such as removal or suspension of 
certification label, to be imposed when cert ified operators violate the act (Article 22, 
Article 24 and Article 27); 
- When acknowledged that foreign gove rnments are operating organic food 
certification systems of equiva lent or higher level to the Korean certification system 
prescribed in this Act, the equivalence of foreign certificat es may be recognized 
(Article 25); 
- Improved provisions on prohibition of wrongful activities and clarified follow-up 
measures to be taken on  certified operators and certifying bodies, including G/TBT/N/KOR/407 
Page 2  
 
  conducting random inspections and collecting samples. Increased fines on certified 
operators and toughened penalti es on certifying bodies (Artic le 30, Article 31, Article 
60 and Article 62). 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
To provide convenience, gain trust of consumer s by implementing more efficient certification 
system through adoption of notification and qua lity certification systems for organic farming 
and fish farming materials, in troduction of a mutual recogniti on system and integration of 
plural certification systems on environment-fri endly agricultural produc ts, processed organic 
foods and environment-fr iendly fishery products.  
8. Relevant documents:   The Act on Promotion of Environment-friendly Agriculture and 
Fisheries, and Management and Support for Organic Foods, amended on 1 June 2012 
(available in Korean language). 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    1 June 2012 
2 June 2013 
10. Final date for comments:  Competent authority will receive comments for sixty  days after 
the date of notification in order to seek possi ble way to reflect the comment into enforcing 
regulations of the Act sometime in the future 
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.:  +82-2-500-2126 
Fax:  +82-2-507-2095 E-mail:  chds@korea.kr  
http://members.wto.org/crna ttachments/2012/tbt/KOR/12_4177_00_x.pdf