Ministry of Trade Industry and Resources

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS, President Kim Dae-ja) under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS, Minister Oh Yu-kyoung) attended the third meeting of the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) from November 10 to 14. They held multilateral and bilateral discussions to address export-impeding overseas technical regulations encountered by Korean companies and participated in topic sessions covering technical regulations for emerging industries, such as AI and semiconductors.

At the committee meeting, the Korean government raised eight technical regulations as Specific Trade Concerns (STCs), as they may hinder trade in Korea’s key export products— such as home appliances, petrochemicals, and cosmetics—through excessive certification requirements. These regulations include Indonesia’s mandatory SNI certification for home appliances; India’s toluene quality control order; the EU’s F-gas regulation; India’s writing and printing paper, coated paper, and board quality control order; and China’s regulation on the supervision and administration of cosmetics and medical devices.

Experts from Korea also chaired and spoke in the topic sessions, presenting recent trends in AI and semiconductor standardization, sharing policy experiences on technical regulations, and leading discussions on how technical regulation frameworks can promote global trade. Furthermore, the Korean government reiterated its intent to proactively engage in global discourse on technical regulations for emerging industries and to assume a leading role in establishing relevant international norms.

President Kim Dae-ja of KATS emphasized that “through multilateral and bilateral discussions at the WTO TBT Committee, we have in the past resolved numerous technical-barrier-to-trade issues, such as India’s steel product certification hurdles and Australia’s ban on brominated flame retardants.” He also encouraged businesses to “actively utilize the government’s TBT discussion channels to resolve export challenges caused by overseas technical regulations.”