Presidential office apologizes for causing confusion on overseas direct purchases ban

May 21, 2024, 10:25 am

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Sung Tae-yoon, director of national policy at the presidential office, gives a briefing on the government’s overseas direct purchases measures at the presidential office building in Seoul on May 20, 2024./ Source: Yonhap News

AsiaToday reporter Hong Sun-mi

President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the government on Monday to prepare measures to prevent recurrence in connection with its recent backtracking of the policy plan to block consumers from directly buying cross-border items.

“We apologize for causing confusion and inconvenience to the public with the recent government announcement regarding overseas direct puchases,” Sung Tae-yoon, director of national policy at the presidential office, said in a press briefing.

“The president ordered the government to take measures to prevent a recurrence, such as strengthening preliminary review of policies, collecting public opinions, strengthening policy explanations, and reviewing the government’s policy risk management system,” Sung said.

On May 16, the government announced that 80 types of items directly purchased overseas would be banned if they did not carry the country’s Korea Certification (KC) safety mark. However, only three days after the announcement, the government retracted the measure after huge public backlash over concerns that it excessively limits consumer choices.

The presidential office’s apology comes after related criticism continued even after it scrapped the new policy.

“After the announcement, the presidential office listened to public opinions and asked the prime minister’s office to add an accurate explanation of the contents. In accordance with the president’s order to take necessary measures to prevent inconvenience to the public, the relevant ministries reviewed the policy of introducing KC mark on items from overseas that meet Korea’s safety regulations, and decided to prepare in-depth measures to consider consumers’ options and stability without limiting consumer choices,” Sung said.

“We apologize for not fully considering consumers’ choices and causing inconvenience to the people, who are struggling to purchase affordable products, even if the measure to only allow direct overseas purchases with the KC mark is for the sake of public safety,” Sung said.

“In the process of explaining the policy, we failed to accurately convey the actual plan,” he said. “We apologize for causing confusion because we did not fully explain the policy of blocking 80 items only when they were confirmed to be harmful and that related process is needed,” he added.

“We will use this as an opportunity to do our best to raise the government’s policy reliability.”

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