(Case 1) Company A, a small and medium-sized enterprise located in Gyeonggi Province, exports industrial pumps worth 700,000 dollars every year, but has not yet received an order for the quantity to be supplied.
(Case 2) Company B, a small and medium-sized company located in South Chungcheong Province, agreed to supply semiconductor manufacturing equipment to a Mexican subsidiary of a major domestic company, but the delivery is being delayed indefinitely.
These are some of the damage cases suffered by small and medium-sized enterprises reported to the 'Tariff Difficulty Report Center' that the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) launched on February 18. In addition, in the 'Emergency Survey on Exporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises' conducted jointly by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Federation of SMEs, 42.8% of small and medium-sized enterprises responded that "there is a direct impact due to tariffs."
Following the imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs by the US on March 12 and the implementation of reciprocal tariff measures on April 2, the number of cases where scheduled export volumes are not delivered or are indefinitely postponed is increasing, indicating that the difficulties of our country's exporting SMEs are gradually increasing. Accordingly, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held an 'Exporting SME Field Meeting' with the Korea Customs Service on the 3rd to hear opinions from exporting SMEs and to respond to global tariffs more practically.
The meeting, held at the Seoul Main Customs Office conference room from 10 a.m. that day, was attended by government officials including Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo and Deputy Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service Lee Myung-koo, along with representatives of six exporting SMEs expected to suffer damage due to the imposition of U.S. tariffs.
Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo presented two new policy directions in his opening remarks at the meeting to help exporting SMEs overcome tariff barriers.
First, we will introduce the 'Export Immediate Program' to respond to urgent tariffs for exporting SMEs, announce it early this month, and apply the fast-track method to provide prompt support within one month of application.
The 'Export Direct Program' worth 29 billion won is being implemented as part of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' export voucher project, and it was announced that it is specialized in helping export SMEs respond to tariffs, such as finding alternative markets, securing supply chains, and resolving tariff disputes, in line with the growing trend of global protectionism.
Small and medium-sized enterprises wishing to participate in the Export Direct Program can apply on the Export Voucher website starting on the 10th.
Second, we will establish a close cooperative system with the Korea Customs Service to respond to tariffs for small and medium-sized enterprises.
First, by connecting the regional SME offices and the headquarters customs offices across the country via a hotline, the regional SME offices will quickly provide necessary customs information for exporting SMEs, such as proof of origin and product classification. In addition, public customs brokers stationed at customs offices across the country will be linked to exporting SMEs to provide professional customs consultation, and excellent SMEs recommended by the Korea Customs Service will be given priority for participation in the SME Ministry's export support project.
Next, Deputy Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service Lee Myeong-gu said, “We will continue to strengthen our cooperative relationship with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups so that our exporting small and medium-sized enterprises do not experience time-related and economic inconveniences due to a lack of overseas customs information.”
In the subsequent full-scale discussion, the expectations of exporting SMEs from the government and the need for cooperation between the public, private, and government ministries were discussed. The company representatives who attended the discussion generally expressed a lack of information on the imposition of US tariffs and requested the expansion of government support policies, such as specialized consulting support for tariff response.
Accordingly, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Customs Service immediately answered questions from the field by introducing the current status of online and offline customs information provision operated by the government, and decided to actively express related opinions in the future regarding areas that require consultation with relevant ministries.
Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo said, “We will strengthen the substance of the ‘Export Immediate Program,’ an emergency support program for tariff response announced today, and operate it quickly so that it can be of some help to export sites,” and “We will continue to communicate closely with SMEs and related industries and steadily explore cooperation with government ministries.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is currently holding a ‘National Relay Briefing Session’ to provide guidance on the direction of tariff response policies for SMEs, starting with the ‘SME Export Field Meeting’ in the steel and aluminum sectors held on March 12th, chaired by Minister Oh.
Small and medium-sized enterprises facing tariff difficulties can receive consultation online and offline, including by visiting the Export Support Center website and 15 Export Support Centers established in regional SME and Startup Administrations.
In addition, in response to the reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2 (local time), we plan to conduct a tariff damage survey together with the Korea Federation of SMEs, and when damage to SMEs is received, we will take step-by-step measures such as ▲consulting with regional tariff difficulty reporting centers ▲customized support through the emergency response team ▲operation of 1:1 person in charge control.
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