S. Korea, ASEAN countries discuss customs deals to facilitate trade

SEJONG, June 12 (Yonhap) -- The head of South Korea's customs agency discussed signing customs deals meant to facilitate bilateral trade with his counterparts from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, the agency said Wednesday.

Kim Yung-moon, commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, held separate bilateral meetings with the three counterparts on the sidelines of an annual conference between South Korea and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos.

The sides discussed Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) and Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) deals, according to the customs agency.

The arrangements call for each of the respective sides to speedily clear products from the other country and give priority in customs processing, as well as to set up dedicated contact points to deal with complications in clearance.

Currently, South Korea has a Mutual Recognition Arrangement with 20 countries, including the United States, China and Japan.

South Korea's exports to ASEAN rose from 10.4 percent in 2007 to 16.6 percent in 2017 on the back of brisk sales of semiconductors, displays and various consumer goods.

South Korea set a goal of raising the trade volume with the regional economic bloc to over US$200 billion by 2020.

The ASEAN member countries are Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand, with their combined population estimated at 640 million.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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