A Study on the Penalty of the Breach of Country of Origin Labeling in Korea Foreign Trade Act

대외무역법 원산지표시위반 관련 벌칙에 관한 연구

The Korea Foreign Trade Act(KFTA) was revised the penal provisions of the breach of the Country of Origin Labeling(COOL) recently. The ceiling of penalties became to 5 years for imprisonment, one hundred or three hundred million won for fine. The level of penalties are adjudged quite fair but the amount of penalty should be increased according to the profits from the breach or the nature of crime in some cases. The problems of the penalties are differences between KFTA and other related laws. There are related several laws on the breach of the COOL such as KFTA, Unfair Trade related Law, Customs Law, Consumer Protection Law, Law of COOL on Agricultural and Marine products etc. The penal provisions of the breach of the COOL has more heavier level than other the breach because of the criminal qualities. The problems are the penalty differences between the KFTA and the Unfair Trade Law under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The KFTA's penal provisions need to equate with Unfair Trade Law as long as same breaches on the COOL. The government can also consider some policies to rigid enforcement of breaches on the COOL. There are the Country of Origin Tracking system, the RoO Paparazzi System, Make public the names of habitual RoO Violators, Correction Order of breach of the COOL etc.