Korea’s duty-free stores gain status as export companies

Duty-free stores selling domestic products to foreigners will now be treated as export companies and can receive various government benefits, such as trade insurance and financial aid.

The government has granted benefits to online retailers that sell goods overseas; this is the first time the status has been extended to the country’s duty-free stores.

“We will give some 200 benefits to not only duty-free stores but also those who supply domestic goods to them,” Lee Ho-hyun, a director at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said Monday.

Korea’s duty-free stores have the largest market share in the world, and are growing rapidly, the government says.

Korean duty-free stores account for 12.26 percent of the global duty-free market, and are followed by China with 7.94 percent and the United States with 5.91 percent, according to the Trade Ministry.