. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/KOR/356 
22 February 2012  
 (12-1024) 
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 [   ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:  X 
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Certified food under the 
jurisdiction of MIFAFF, including organic food (o rganic raw materials and organic processed 
foods), non-antibiotic livestock products, non- pesticide agricultural products, eco-seafood, 
GAP, PGI, etc. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Amendment to the 
Enforcement Regulation of the Food Industry Pr omotion Act (total 6 pages in Korean), 
Amendment to the Enforcement Regulation of Environmentally-Friendly Agriculture 
Promotion Act (total 4 pages in Korean), Amendment to the Enforcement Regulation of 
Agricultural Products Quality Management Act (t otal 8 pages in Korean), Amendment to the 
Enforcement Regulation of Fish ery Products Quality Management Act (total 13 pages in 
Korean), Notification No. 207 of Ministry for F ood Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries  (total 
3 pages in Korean), Notification No. 208 of MIFA FF (total 2 pages in Korean), Notification 
No. 209 of MIFAFF (total 2 pages in Korean ) and Notification No. 111 of Quarantine and 
Inspection Agency (total 3 pages in Korean)     
6. Description of content:  The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries enforced 
the regulation on the Common Certification L ogo in 1 January 2012. Aiming to enhance 
consumer awareness on the certification progr am, MIFAFF unified the previous multiple 
frames for food certification logos into a single,  square frame. Under the new regulation, the 
names of food certification systems are indica ted in simplified, shor tened version in the 
square frame whereas their full names are used in  ordinary cases. At the same time, MIFAFF 
allowed certified operators to use the existing logos and packaging mate rials for their products 
in parallel with the common ce rtification logos and the newl y-printed packaging materials 
until the end of 2013 for the purpose of avoidi ng consumer confusion and easing financial 
burden of certified operators due to th e implementation of regulation on Common 
Certification Logo. The list of  certification systems to use the Common Certification Logo is 
as follows.  
 G/TBT/N/KOR/356 
Page 2  
 
  - Certification system for Organic Food (i ncluding organic raw materials and organic 
 processed foods) 
- Certification system for Non-Antibio tic Livestock Products, Non-Pesticide 
 Agricultural Products - Certification system for Eco-Seafood - GAP 
- HACCP (fishery products , livestock products) 
- Protected Geographical Indication - Certification system for Fishery Products  - Certification system for Traditional Foods - Designation system for Food Masters 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:  To  
improve  the consumer recognition for the natio nal agri-food certifications and their logos  
8. Relevant documents:   Korean official government gazette, No 17667, published on 
30 December 2011 (http://www.gwanbo.korea.kr, available in Korean)   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    1 January 2012 (already in force) 
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:    
Food Safety & Consumer Af fairs Policy Division 
Ministry for Food, Agricultur e, Forestry and Fisheries 
47, Gwanmun-ro, Gwacheon-si Gyeonggi-do, 427-719 Republic of Korea Tel.:  +(82) 2 500 2099 
Fax:  +(82) 2 503 7277 
Email:  dhkim1@korea.kr