Korean Firms Angry Over “Unreasonable And Arbitrary” U.S. Testing Standards
Korea Times:
02-03-2008 17:47
US Testing Rules Upset Korean Exporters
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Korean companies spend about 900 billion won ($950 million) every year in additional costs in conducting quality and safety tests to meet U.S. industrial standards, according to a government study.
The KSO (Korean Standards Association) reported Sunday that it received 1,069 complaints from firms, laboratories and institutions last year about unreasonable and arbitrary industrial standards of the United States.
The United States is the largest export market of South Korea, and goods exported to the country are often required to meet the standards and guidelines set up by private associations or interest groups of its industries, rather than official guidelines of international organizations such as the ISO (International Organization for Standardization).
In the case of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, the agency required that some tests to check for shrinkage of clothes be conducted using U.S.-made detergent. The report insisted that the price of standard U.S. detergent is 100 won per gram, which is 20 times more expensive than Korean detergent. So Korean firms are spending 10 billion won in buying the U.S. detergent to conduct 1 million fabric tests every year, it estimated.
“In the past, the government did not care about U.S. industrial standard issues, because it thought this was a market issue that should be dealt with by companies,” said a KSO spokesman.
Many countries take advantage of local industrial standards as a non-tariff barrier to protect local industries from foreign goods and services. Moreover, many U.S industrial standards are considered as de facto global standards because of the size of the country’s market and its influence on the global economy.
In another example, in testing the tensile strength of some plastic materials, the American Society for Testing and Materials enforces firms to use a specially designed metal mold and a cutter, the report said. It takes about 30 million won to make a mold and another 20 million won for cutters for the test of one product, and some 30 companies and agencies in Korea are conducting the test as many as 50 times a year. The total cost of the plastic testing is 46 billion won, it insisted.
The Korean Standards Association, which is under the wing of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, has been operating a Web site, www.defacto.or.kr, to receive complaints from firms and institutions,
Of the total of 1,069 complaints, 504 cases involved U.S. agencies requesting the use of specific U.S.-made testing equipment and materials in quality and safety experiments. This was followed by 179 instances of long, drawn-out tests. Other complaints that were voiced included lack of consideration for South Korean environmental conditions and climate, and generally poor or outdated technology used in tests.
The standard agency said it found at least 10 testing standards that were arbitrary or ineffective.
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So when the numbers are finally broken down, only “10 testing standards” are considered “arbitrary or ineffective.” It sounds to me like a little nationalist chest-beating because they have to meet our standards to sell in OUR market. Or, more precisely, they have to use the testing standards of major private firms in the US to get their support for products sold in our market. So, please, tell me, what’s the problem here? US products are subjected to far worse discrimination overseas, including protectionist tariffs that the South Koreans don’t have to worry about here.
February 4th, 2008 at 2:00 amWell, then go sell your shit someplace else. We should get off the DMZ and make you pay for all of the expense. Trust, but, verify.
February 4th, 2008 at 2:02 amYeah, but are we all paying higher prices because of stupid Government-regulated tests? I don’t trust any government agency.
February 4th, 2008 at 2:20 amI spent a LONG year in Korea when I was a Lieutenant. What I will tell you there is a HUGE reason why those Korean’s are whining about our standards. It’s mainly because they have NO standards. Their products are SHIT because those companies and their workers are the best half-assers the world has ever produced. In Korea, entire high rise apartments building collapse killing many tenets.
During that year they were building barracks for our battalion. They looked nice, but a little over a year after they were completed they cracked in half. The reason was the workers used too much sand when they mixed the concrete. Another example of their halfassiness is stairs. In the US our stairs are uniform. Meaning that the distance between each step is the same. Not in Korea. The distance between the third step and the fourth might be 4 inches, and the distance between the fourth and the fifth could be 18 inches.
So I say if you don’t like it Korea/Korean than sell your crap to the Japanese, oh wait they wouldn’t buy your crap even if it was free. The Japanese will tell you how crappy Korean products are!
February 4th, 2008 at 5:47 amWE just need to withdraw ALL forces from the dump and let them be.
February 4th, 2008 at 5:50 am“It’s mainly because they have NO standards. Their products are SHIT because those companies and their workers are the best half-asser the world has ever produced”
Amen brother
February 4th, 2008 at 5:55 amJim, I tell you because of my job I have to rent a lot of car and the koreans ones are worse than the PT crusiers and I dislike those things a lot.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:51 am