The Korea Customs Service said Thursday that it will seek to adopt memoranda of understanding(MOUs) with 52 countries it has free trade agreements(FTAs) with to better implement the trade deals.  
 
The customs agency's move comes as problems continue to emerge in implementing the trade accords, particularly in the process of customs clearance. Such problems include denial of certificates of origin due to a difference in interpretation and excessive requests for paperwork.
 
To tackle the problems, the agency decided to establish a cooperation channel and to adopt the MOUs with its FTA partners.
 
Last October, the agency adopted an MOU with China’s customs organization. It plans to adopt the accords with Turkey and Thailand from the latter half of this year.

South Korea has FTAs with 52 countries total including with Colombia, which takes effect from Friday.