The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Sunday the certificate of origin documentation for trade between Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations would be simplified.

“Despite the increase in trade volume with ASEAN, Korean firms have been underutilizing the FTA due to the complicated procedures concerning the certificate of origin,” the ministry said in a statement. “The government has agreed to revise the related rules in a recent negotiation with ASEAN partners.”

Current rules state that a certificate of origin should be issued for each export or import item. The new rules would allow only one document to cover all the items, the ministry said.

The duration of the certificate would be also extended from the current six months to one year. In addition, exporters would be allowed to leave out sensitive information such as manufacturer’s name and product prices.

The move came as Korea-ASEAN trade grew at an annual average of 14.8 percent since the FTA came into effect on June 1, 2007. As of 2011, the trade volume stood at $124.9 billion, up from $71.9 billion in 2007.

In 2011, ASEAN became the second biggest trade partner for Korea, after China, reflecting its growing importance for Korean trade firms targeting the region.

Korea shipped goods and services valued at 71.8 billion to ASEAN countries last year, chalking up a trade surplus of $18.7 billion.

The Finance Ministry said Korean companies complained that current certificate of origin documentation was too complex and time-consuming. In particular, they called for a change to the requirement that companies should fill in sensitive price information for an individual product.

Early last month, the Finance Ministry held talks with ASEAN counterparts in a bid to amend the certificate of origin documentation rules and both parties agreed to simplify them by January.

The ministry said it would continue to hold working-level negotiations twice a year with ASEAN counterparts to work out trade-related issues for greater mutual benefits.

Korea started FTA negotiations with ASEAN in February 2005 and the National Assembly here ratified the deal in April 2007.

ASEAN is a geo-political and economic organization of ten countries founded in 1967. The member nations are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

By Yang Sung-jin (insight@heraldcorp.com)