. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/KOR/385 
3 March 2011 
 (11-1079 ) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
1. Notifying Member:  REPUBLIC OF KOREA
 
If applicable, name of local government involved:    
2. Agency responsible:  Ministry of Health and  Welfare 
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):  Health functional foods 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable: 
[X] All trading partners   
[ ] Specific regions or countries:    
5. Title of the notified document:  Proposed Draft Amendments of the Health Functional 
Food Act, the Enforcement Decree of the H ealth Functional Food Act & the Enforcement 
Rule of the Health Functional Food Act  Language(s):  Korean  Number of pages:  44 
6. Description of content:  In order to enhance competitiveness by easing regulations on the 
sales of health functional foods and eliminating limits on giveaways, the major 
amendments are as follows: 
- to improve the general rules for declaring  the sale of health functional foods 
- to ease limits on giveaways when selling health functional foods  - to prepare the grounds to support the blocking of illegal online sales  
- to abolish the expiration date for tracki ng management and registration of health 
functional foods 
- to address the overlapping of penalties and fines imposed in response to violations 
of item production suspension orders and business suspension orders  
- to alleviate the commission costs for exemplary business operators and to 
strengthen the regulation of repeat violators 
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.    
8. Is there a relevant international stan dard?  If so, identify the standard:  
[ ] Codex Alimentarius Commission (e.g.  title or serial number of Codex standard 
or related text)   
[ ] World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) (e.g. Terrestrial or Aquatic 
Animal Health Code, chapter number)    G/SPS/N/KOR/385 
Page 2  
 
  [ ] International Plant Protection Convention (e.g. ISPM number)    
[X] None Does this proposed regulation conform to the relevant international standard?   
 [ ] Yes   [ ] No 
 If no, describe, whenever possible, how and why it deviates from the 
international standard:    
9. Other relevant documents and language (s) in which these are available:  Official 
document of the Ministry of Health  and  We lfare (14 February 2011) (available in Korean) 
When adopted, this amendment will be publis hed in the Korean Official Gazette.   
10. Proposed date of adoption (dd/mm/yy) :  To be determined. 
Proposed date of publication (dd/mm/yy) :  To be determined. 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  [ ] Six months from date of publication , and/or  
(dd/mm/yy) :  To be determined. 
[ ] Trade facilitating measure   
12. Final date for comments:  [X] Sixty days  from the date of circulation of the 
notification and/or (dd/mm/yy) :  2 May 2011 
Agency or authority designated to handl e comments:  [ ] National Notification 
Authority, [X] National Enquiry Point.  Address, fax number and e-mail address (if 
available) of other body:   
Food Policy Division 
Ministry of Health  and Welfare  110-793 / 75 Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 
The Republic of Korea 
Tel:  +(82 2) 2023 7782 Fax:  +(82 2) 2023 7780 E-mail:  duddhrl81@korea.kr 
13. Texts available from:  [ ] National Notification  Authority, [X] National Enquiry Point.  
Address, fax number and e-mail address (if available) of other body:    
Food Policy Division  
Ministry of Health  and Welfare  
110-793 / 75 Yulgok-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 
The Republic of Korea Tel:  +(82 2) 2023 7782 Fax:  +(82 2) 2023 7780 E-mail:  duddhrl81@korea.kr