By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
Importers of Chinese furniture, who brought in cheap sofas, tables and beds from the neighboring country and sold them here as ``luxury items from Europe’’ have been fined, it was reported Thursday.
The Korea Trade Commission (KTC) under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said that it imposed a fine of 50 million won ($54,490) on nine importers who sold furniture without certificates of origin attached to the goods.
Some of the importers were running businesses in Nonhyeon-dong, an affluent region of the Gangnam area in southern Seoul, and Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital city, according to the KTC officials.
The local furniture industry has seen its production base collapse in recent years due to the influx of cheap Chinese furniture and the breach of laws related to the origin of products, one of the officials said.
``Importers charged this time also brought in cheap Chinese furniture without inspection or customs clearance and sold them as if they were domestically made or from Europe to make excessive profits,’’ he said.
The KTC decided to strictly deal with the illegal activities as they not only deceived local customers but also distorted fair price competition thereby causing trouble to domestic producers. One of the importers was fined $20 million, the highest fine since the Law on External Trade was enacted.
Set up in July 1987, the KTC is a quasi-judicial agency that determines the impact of dumped or subsidized imports on domestic industries. It also directs actions against certain unfair trade practices such as infringements on intellectual property rights (IPRs).
The KTC usually conducts investigations at the request of local industries. But officials said the organization exercised its authority to carry out the probe since a growing number of breaches had been found with regard to the origin of products.
``We are going to expand the scope of our investigations with regard to the origin of products to other luxury goods such as handbags from next year,’’ said Park Sung-soo, director general of the Office of Investigation of the KTC.