The Democratic Party of Korea is moving to eliminate "label swapping," the practice of disguising the origin of low-cost imported clothing as domestically made. The party plans to strengthen penalties for origin labeling violations and establish a permanent monitoring system.
The Democratic Party's Eulji-ro Committee held a "Roundtable to Eradicate Clothing Label Swapping and Protect the Foundation of the Fashion and Sewing Industry" at the National Assembly on the 9th, where it announced these measures. "The Seoul Metropolitan Government has effectively left the label swapping problem unattended, so the National Assembly and the government intend to cooperate to solve the problem," Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-keun said.
According to the Korea Customs Service, a government-wide crackdown conducted from February to May caught 193 businesses for unfair practices including origin labeling violations. The amount involved was approximately 41.6 billion won, more than three times the level during the special crackdown in 2019. Not only clothing supplied to public institutions and local governments but even special garments for chemical processing were subject to label swapping.
The Democratic Party plans to strengthen penalty provisions through a revision of the Foreign Trade Act. The penalty surcharge, previously set at up to 300 million won, will be raised to "less than 20% of the violation amount and under 500 million won," and the penalty clause will be strengthened from up to five years in prison to up to seven years. A citizen monitoring group linked with the Korea Customs Service and local governments will also be operated.
