The Korea Customs Service said Tuesday it has assigned public customs brokers at municipal customs offices to help small and mid-sized businesses expand their overseas business by taking advantage of free trade agreements.

In conjunction with the Korea Customs Brokers Association, a total of 101 customs brokers have been dispatched to 34 customs offices in such cities as Seoul, Busan and Incheon as of Monday.

The agents will be stationed at their designated offices once or twice a week to offer consulting or visit companies to provide support.

The SMEs will also be able to receive information on overseas customs and overall customs-related administration, such as how to classify their products, how the country-of-origin is determined and the status of preferential tariffs.

The project aims to increase the export competitiveness of the SMEs, the KCS said.

Similar initiatives have been taken in the past such as the “Yes FTA Consulting Business” that helped SMEs learn the KCS’ country-of-origin management system among others for free.

In a recent survey, 96 percent of the 472 companies with no prior experience of taking advantage of the FTAs in their exports said they benefited from the program, the KCS said.

By Yim Ji-min (jiminy@heraldcorp.com)