The Korean Trade Commission was founded in July 1987, in accordance with Article 38 of the Foreign Trade Act enacted in December 1986. The organization merely fulfilled an advisory role of reviewing and clarifying the impact of imports on domestic industry and cases of violation of the Foreign Trade Act, before the Ministry of Commerce and Industry implemented trade remedy measures and administration. In December 1989, along with the revision of the Foreign Trade Act, the Korean Trade Commission changed its institutional identity into a consultative administration organization, its function being expanded to determine whether to initiate an investigation, make determination of injury to domestic industry and the measures for itself. In April 1990, the number of commissioners increased from five to nine people including the chairperson and the Office of Investigation was established as an executive office. In December 1993, the anti-dumping system was altered considerably. Acceptance of application for the imposition of anti-dumping duties, as well as determination on whether the initiation of anti-dumping investigations are necessary, were transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Korean Trade Commission. The length of time for determination whether to initiate an investigation was reduced from three months to one month. A preliminary investigation system was also introduced. The whole process of the dumping investigation was re-arranged to be completed within a maximum of six months. The provisional and definitive measures to impose anti-dumping duties had to be decided within a month after the Korean Trade Commission submitted the investigation result. Along with the launch of the WTO regime in January 1995, the opening and liberalization of the domestic market progressed rapidly. Accordingly, the anti-dumping system was revised again. In this revision, the investigation of the dumping margin was transferred from the Office of Customs Administration to the Korean Trade Commission. The latter was also assigned to investigate and propose the provisional and final anti-dumping duty rate and imposition period to the Minister of Finance and Economy, as well as delivering reports on the existence or nonexistence of injury to the domestic industry. As a result of this revision, the Korean Trade Commission nominally and virtually became a Trade Remedy Agency in charge of managing the anti-dumping duty, countervailing duty, and safeguard system. In terms of organization, the Dumping Investigation Division, whose specialized role was to investigate the dumping margin and the amount of a subsidy, was established. Due to the scale-down of the governmental organizations, Injury Investigation Divisions I and II were integrated in May 1999. In January 2001, by establishing the Act on the Investigations of Unfair International Trade Practices and Remedy against Injury to Industry, the role of the Korean Trade Commis sion was re-inforced in conducting investigations and pursuing corrective measures. Welcome to the Korean Trade Commission web site. The Korean Trade Commission is a trade relief organization that seeks appropriate relief measures to protect domestic industries.