한미 FTA 협정상 관세관련 주요 내용 고찰

The KORUS FTA and some Customs Duties Related IssuesKorea and United States signed the KORUS FTA in Washington, D.C., USA on 30 June 2007. For the successful conclusion of the KORUS FTA, the consent procedures from the both Korean National Assembly and US Congress and both President's ratifications are furthermore needed.Even though nowadays FTAs deal with quite comprehensive issues, basically FTAs are to eliminate or reduce customs duties. This paper aims to introduce and analyse tariffs related provisions of the KORUS FTAs including tariffs reduction schedule, customs co-operation to avoid circumvention in textiles export, rule of origin matter, especially treatment of products made in Gaesung Industrial Complex of North Korea, customs administration and trade facili- tation, domestic tax reform on cars and snap-back procedure.According to KORUS FTA, digital products means computer programs, text, video, images, sound recordings, and other products that are digitally encoded and produced for commercial sale or distribution, regardless of whether they are fixed on a carrier medium or transmitted electronically. For those digital pro- ducts, whether they electronically transmitted or not, Korea and US agreed not to impose any customs duties permanently, other than duties on carrier medium.One of the most critical issues in KORUS FTA negotiation was protection of intellectual property matters. The US strongly argued for the strengthening of intellectual property protection in Korea, and one of the elements was strengthening of the border measures. By the result of the KORUS FTA, Korean government needs to revise Korean Customs Duties Law to reflect strong copyright protection in border measures and disposal of trademark and copy- right infringed products.