According to the report of Yonhap News Agency on May 19 on May 20 on the reference news website, the Korean government issued a position on the dispute of restricting individuals' direct overseas purchase (overseas shopping) on May 19, saying that the comprehensive prohibition of overseas shopping for 80 types of products that have not been certified by South Korea is not true, and the South Korean government has never discussed this scheme.
Li Zhengyuan, the second minister of the South Korean State Affairs Adjustment Office, said at the press conference on the same day that it was impossible to completely ban 80 types of overseas shopping products in terms of actual feasibility and legitimacy. Relevant departments will carry out safety inspection for 80 types of products in advance, and only take prohibition measures for harmful products.
Li Zhengyuan said that the South Korean government has no reason and cannot prevent consumers from directly buying products without potential safety hazards from overseas. In order to ensure national security, the South Korean government insists on focusing on security testing and publishing the results. He said that Korean Certification (KC) is not the only solution to ensure the safety of overseas shopping products, and will carefully discuss after listening to various opinions. The South Korean government apologized for the confusion caused by the failure to introduce relevant policies in detail.
On the 16th of this month, the South Korean government released the "Plan on Strengthening Consumer Safety and Enterprise Competitiveness of Overseas Shopping", saying that 80 categories of products of overseas shopping that have not been certified by South Korea, including 34 categories of children's products, and 34 categories of electrical appliances and daily necessities, will be banned from June. The plan was interpreted as a complete ban on overseas shopping, which caused controversy.
According to the Yonhap News Agency, the data released by the Korean Statistical Office on May 1 showed that South Korea's overseas direct purchase (overseas shopping) transaction volume in the first quarter of this year was 1647.6 billion won (10000 won is about 53 yuan - this website note), an increase of 9.4% year on year, the highest in the same period over the years. Among them, the share of overseas shopping has increased significantly since China, hitting a record high.
In the first quarter of this year, South Korea's overseas shopping volume from China was 938.4 billion won, up 53.9% year on year. Since China's overseas shopping volume accounted for 57% of the total overseas shopping volume, 16.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year (40.5%), the highest since the start of relevant statistics.
