. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/C/W/403
25 July 2002
(02-4113)
Council for Trade in Goods Original:  English
TRADE FACILITATION : GATT ARTICLE VIII
Communication from the Republic of Korea
The following communication, dated 22 July 2002, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Korea.
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I. Introduction
GATT Article VIII covers fees and formalities directly related to importation and exportation.
It sets out the basic principles of limiting the amount, incidence and diversity of fees and formalitiesto the reasonable minimum.
The trade environment, including customs administration, has undergone dramatic changes.
Despite this, the principles laid out in Article VIII  are still equally valid. Korea is of the view that
WTO Members should now refine the time-honored principles into more concrete disciplines whichreflect the changes in the trading environment. Some countries are introducing voluntary measures,
but only concerted efforts by all Members can deliver substantial improvement.
Now that we have the fora to discuss ways of building on Article VIII, we need to address this
issue more seriously in a forward-looking manner.
In this context, Korea would like to extend its sincere thanks to the Secretariat for its
background paper and to the Members for their contributions. Korea supports most of the ideas
contained in those contributions. Korea also would like to express its views on this important issue to
facilitate the discussion.
II. What is needed and feasible.
In line with Korea's first communication to the last CTG meeting in May (G/C/W/377), Korea
believes that two basic criteria, namely the degree of contribution and feasibility, should be used to
evaluate the merits of potential disciplines.
Many specific measures have been identified as  being instrumental in facilitating trade. Some
of them are expected to make significant contri butions while imposing a relatively light burden of
implementation.  Examples include:
• Acceptance of commercially available information and copies, except for some justifiable
cases, can be introduced without delay, since it does not involve a significant financial or
administrative burden. Such a deregulatory measure not only lowers the costs for the
traders but also relieves the customs authority of an unnecessary administrative burden.
• Pre-arrival processing, post-auditing and core risk-management measures are the key
measures for the rapid release of goods. This set of measures brings benefits both to theG/C/W/403
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traders and the government. With proper technical assistance and capacity building
support, which would represent a small financial burden, developing countries will be
able to enjoy the benefits from such measures. The focus of the CB/TA should be on
institutional reform and human training, taking into account that IT infrastructure could
make the process more efficient.*
* Please note Korea’s real-life experiences, as illustrated in four NEPs (G/C/W/123,
G/C/W/134, G/C/W/146 and G/C/W/150), in this regard.
In whatever form the above disciplines are to be introduced into the WTO system, it is useful
to reiterate some of the widely accepted principles with a view to providing a clear reference for legal
interpretations as well as a guideline for the matters not specifically covered by the operativeprovisions.
Such principles can be inferred from GATT Article VIII together with the other Articles of
the GATT and WTO instruments. It should be noted that such principles are anything but new to the
WTO, thus they should be easy to agree on.
• Non-discrimination: MFN and national treatment
• Transparency
• Predictability: to reduce redundant costs from sudden adjustment and enhances transparency
• Simplicity
• Reasonableness
Korea is looking forward to cooperating with  the other Members on identifying the agreeable
details of such disciplines and principles.
III. What requires further development.
Korea is of the view that while the following measures would contribute to trade facilitation,
they need to be further discussed in terms of their feasibility.
Some of the modern customs techniques are not easy to implement without a sound IT
infrastructure.
• Single windows access would function efficiently only if a proper IT infrastructure and an
efficient mechanism for information flow among the various authorities were established.
• Also, for EDI, an IT infrastructure is a prerequisite.
Some measures might be hard to enforce instantly due to the lack of a common understanding
on a basic concept or the lack of a specific instrument.
• Obligatory application of international standards requires a consensus on which standard the
Members will take.
• General commitment to simplification and modernization by itself is not amenable to
enforcement, even though those are acceptable as principles.
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