WHAT ARE PARALLEL IMPORTS?



Regular importing of goods is when a company brings a product for sale in its own country from another country through an agreed, legitimate deal between the two companies.

Parallel importing is the importing of a genuine product from another country without an official deal with the original company.

This allows for more than one local import company to bring foreign brand items into Korea. So for example, if an American toothpaste brand, called A, does not have an official deal to export their products to Korea, many smaller Korean importers can bring A’s products into Korea and sell them.

The re-importing of Genesis is possible because the Korean government permits companies to make parallel import transactions, with some exceptions.

Sometimes parallel importing is done to sell items which consumers want but can’t be found in Korea. Other times, this is done to sell products at a lower price.

In New Zealand for example, some car dealers buy Mercedes-Benz cars in Malaysia at a lower price than they are sold at in New Zealand. Then they import the cars into New Zealand at a lower price than Mercedes-Benz cars sold directly there without this deal.

In Korea, a recent popular parallel import item is the Nissan Cube mini MPV. This Japanese car is not yet officially imported here but around 100 parallel imports are being driven on Korean roads.

Korean singer Lee Hyo-ri drives the Cube and since her appearance with the car, its popularity has escalated here.

Nissan said that the car will be exported to the United States, Europe and Korea by the first half of next year.