On November 4, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) of the Republic of Korea issued Announcement No. 2024-509, which proposes to amend parts of the Registration and Management Standards for Excellent importer Enterprises, with the following key points:

1. Suspend the preferential treatment of the excellent importing enterprise when the on-site sanitary inspection of an overseas manufacturing enterprise is suspended at the same time.

2. Expand the conditions for the extension of the period of on-site sanitary inspection of an outstanding importing enterprise: the period of time during which an on-site inspection of an overseas manufacturing enterprise may be conducted may be extended when a Level 3 (Red alert), Level 4 (Black alert), or Special Travel alert is issued by the region in which the overseas manufacturing enterprise is located, or by the region through which the enterprise is traveled.

The above call for comments is open until November 25, 2023.