Thursday, January 12, 2006

It depends what fame of mind you put in in.

The Minsitry of Commerce, Industry,and Energy is changing the standards of what makes some made in Korea be labled "made in Korea". The idea is to combat firms that import forgien made products, do some minimal final assembly, then stamp "made in Korea". What struck me about the article is it becomes a perfect example of why experts say Korea has no chance in becoming a hub, unclear and burdensome govrement regulations. Can you make sense of these two statements:

The new product origin standard will call for at least 51 percent of a given product’s manufacturing cost to have been created in the country, and for the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) designation for raw materials and parts to be different from the end product made here. 

...

However, he said that to address complaints raised by fur and cement manufacturers that have to import raw materials and make the finished products here, a waiver on the CS code requirement will be made. 

``If value-added wealth created in South Korea exceeds 85 percent of the manufacturing cost, then the product will be considered Korean-made,’’ Kim said.

So which is it? 51% by origin or 85% of the value added? Will it vary by industry? How many different classifications are there then? Granted much of this is not settled by the article, but the simple fact they take one simple rule, and then complicate it is a symptom of the problem in my opinion. 

As a related question how much of a role of nationalism play in the selection of cement? "Oh I am not going to move into that building, it does not use Korean cement!" "I am jumping off this building to protest Dok-do, but I am jumping off the northside to make sure I go 'splat' on KOREAN cement!"

posted by Dram Man @ 11:14 PM

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