Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Korea Customs Service (KCS), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) held the opening ceremony of the Electronic Certification System (eCERT), established as a bilateral platform for steel customs clearance, on May 15 (EDT) at CBP Headquarters in Washington D.C.

 

The eCERT is a filing system for quota-subject Korean steel that can manage quotas and customs, operated in sync with the export quota management system run by Korea Iron and Steel Association (KOSA). CBP will compare and cross-check the export approval document submitted by KOSA with the import declaration form and reply back on whether or not to approve customs clearance.

 

Beginning May 20, CBP will automatically reject filings with incompatible steel importer data. In other words, the export approval document from KOSA and import declaration form submitted to CBP must match for customs to clear.

 

MOTIE's Deputy Minister for FTA Negotiations Roh Keon-ki commented that “Whereas in the past it took over a week for Korean exporters to confirm customs clearance on their own through U.S. importers, now they can view the entire customs process with a single mouse click.”