• Korea Trade Review
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.285-301
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• 2023

The growing impact of cross-border movement of information is increasing interest in information policy through digital trade agreements in major trading countries. Major trading partners are calling for the inclusion of their digital policies in trade agreements to strengthen market dominance and protect personal information. This study analyzes the meaning and disputed settlement cases of the WTO's public policy objectives and examines the tendency of stakeholders to standardize legitimate exceptions to public policy objectives in digital trade. The study also examines the desirable direction of digital trade standardization suitable for the changing international trade environment. There is still debate about the specific objectives that should be included and the extent to which they should be allowed to restrict trade, however this study finds that there is a growing consensus on the need for legitimate public policy objectives to be included in digital trade agreements. The study concludes that the desirable direction of digital trade standardization is to strike a balance between the need to protect legitimate public policy objectives and the need to liberalize digital trade. This balance will need to be adjusted as the international trade environment continues to change.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.627-628
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• 2022

There is no internationally accepted codified definition of digital trade because of the wide variety and scope of related industries and transactions(product + service + data) in general. Recently, innovative changes are taking place in digital trade due to the development of technologies such as IT due to the 4th industrial revolution, and advanced countries such as the US, EU, and Japan are including digital trade issues such as data movement liberalization in the negotiation agenda of the digital trade agreement. The issue with the liberalization of cross-border data movement is that freedom of data movement is necessary to vitalize digital trade, but it also increases the risk of information security and privacy violations. Looking at the directions of advanced countries, the US favors minimization of regulations, Europe favors regional single marketization, but passively opens up to the outside world, and China promotes independent markets through regulations. Therefore, measures to strengthen restrictions on cross-border data movement are an issue that has recently been implemented by each country or an international aggrement is scheduled to be reached soon, and Korea also needs a close response.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.309-330
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• 2013

Trans-Pacific Partnership started as a small scale 4 countries regional trade agreement. It became a grand free trade agreement when the United States announced its participation and Japn considers to join. Korea still hasn't decided the stance however, considering the economic and political relationship with the United States and the impact of TPP, it looks like that Korea is going to join TPP. US led the TPP agreement is expected to be made based on the previous FTA agreements of the US. In the promising E-Commerce part, it is likely that the e-commerce leading US would suggest favorable agreement. If Korea joins the TPP, it's necessary to suggest what Korea wants and needs based on the previous KORUS FTA to promote Korean e-commerce for the future.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.25-44
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• 2017

Though electronic commerce has grown rapidly in international trade, there is no basic consensus for its concept and rule applied. So WTO has done practice of not imposing customs duties on digital contents and been researching overall on electronic commerce through Work Program while many countries of the world attempt to obtain their interests by stipulating chapter of electronic commerce in their FTAs. This paper has compared and analysed chapter of electronic commerce in all the FTAs which Korea has signed and enforced. Korea's FTA stipulates commonly no customs duties, the other chapter's priority when chapter of electronic commerce conflicts the other chapter, electronic authentication, protection of personal information and consumer protection. But it has weak consistency and framework as it has different provisions for the objects of electronic commerce respectively, reserves classification & applied rule for electronic commerce, stipulates differently on non discrimination treatment and so on. Korea should participate in the research of international organization including WTO and cope actively and elastically by analysing the provisions of electronic commerce of the other countries' FTA such as USA, EU, CHINA and so on.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.205-234
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• 2011

The study analyzes the shifts of international competition in the digital products market between South Korea and major FTA partners. The analysis utilizes trade statistics to calculate changes in the volume of trade, and in competitiveness between FTA partners. The target countries for this analysis include USA and the European Union with whom Korea has made agreements recently, and the period is set for the decade from 2000 to 2009. The trade records of the UN are employed to investigate the indexes of each country: trade structure and market share of digital products, the trade specialization index (TSI), and annual change of revealed comparative advantage index (RCA) against global market and both the American and EU markets. This analysis shows clearly the status quo of the development and growth of the international competitiveness of South Korea. The study will improve the understanding of international competitiveness in digital products and contents industry, which is rapidly evolving, and of the resulting industrial structure.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.21-29
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• 2015

The emergence of the internet causes the electronic trade of movies, music, software and other digital content products to be an eminent share of international commerce. The purpose of this study is to examine legal issues of electronic commerce chapters of the Korea US FTA and tasks of the digital contents industry. Results of the study show that several implications based on the industry are offered. The Korean government needs to do the following: settle of classification issue in digital contents, settle of customs issue in digital contents, settle of issue of non-discrimination principle in digital contents, settle of exclusion issue in audiovisual services, improve of global competitiveness, unify of export support system, establish of overseas expansion strategy in genre and regional contents, train of global experts and protect of intellectual property in digital contents.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.39-60
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• 2021

Despite the fast growth and rising importance of digital trade, there still exists no multilateral agreement governing digital trade. Significant differences in policy directions regarding key digital trade issues among the U.S., EU and China are the main stumbling blocks for reaching agreement on the multilateral front. To overcome this deficiency in digital trade rules, there has been active movement among mainly countries in the Asia-Pacific region for rule-making on digital trade. Starting with the CPTPP chapter on E-Commerce in 2018, there has been a series of digital trade rules agreed in bilateral or plurilateral formats, such as the USMCA, USJDTA, DEPA, DEA and RCEP. Korea is currently only member of RCEP, which contains an e-commerce chapter with lower levels of commitment as compared to other digital trade agreements. This paper provides a broad analysis of the recently concluded digital trade agreements, comparing the different coverage of rules, levels of commitment, and rules templates. The analysis aims to provide implications for the desirable direction of rule-making on digital trade and Korea's digital trade strategy.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.9-17
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• 2015

China is the largest e-commerce market in the world. The Chinese online retail market is almost 40% larger than the US, and together these markets account for more than 55% of worldwide e-commerce. The Korea China FTA is likely to facilitate e-commerce activity between the two countries, as well as trade in the goods and services that enable e-commerce. Korean consumer goods can enjoy the benefits of the FTA because it has a competitive advantage in the Chinese market in terms of technology and quality. The purpose of this study is to examine legal issues of e-commerce chapters of the Korea China FTA and policy implications. Results of the study show that several implications based on the export vitalization of cross-border e-commerce of Korean products are offered. The Korean government needs to do the following: prepare for the subsequent negotiation of the e-commerce agreement, prepare for the classification issue of electronic transmissions, require mutual recognition of electronic authentication and electronic signatures, prepare for e-commerce dispute settlement mechanism and establish of strategies for the export vitalization of e-commerce.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

Digital trade rules are crucial in supporting the digital economy as the rules effectively reduce unnecessary trade barriers. This study introduces various approaches that major countries take regarding digital trade policies and rules. Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership has introduced comprehensive rules on e-commerce, including binding articles on the free flow of information, location of computing facilities, and source code. More recent e-commerce provisions or digital trade agreements cover wider range of issues, from cyber security, artificial intelligence, and data innovation to electronic invoicing and payments. Multilateral negotiations on digital trade rules, including the World Trade Organization E-commerce Joint Statement Initiatives and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, are in progress. Thus, countries involved are expected to respond to new digital trade issues with long-term strategies considering domestic policy objectives.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.85-92
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• 2022

In recent years, the world's free trade system has been severely damaged by a series of protectionist measures in the United States and anti-globalization practices such as Brexit. Against this background, RCEP, the world's largest trade agreement, was officially signed on November 15, 2021. The RCEP provided a good working basis for the establishment of a Korea, China, and Japan free trade zone. First, this paper describes the current status of Korea-China-Japan trade cooperation and the current status of the trilateral telecommunication industry. Second, this paper simulates the changes in the overall economy of China, Japan, and Korea when tariffs are reduced to 0%, 5%, and 10%, respectively, after the establishment of a free trade zone using the 8th edition GTAP database. Then, using the simulated data changes and using the 2019 data as a benchmark, we calculated the changes in the RCA index for the three countries' telecommunications industries for the three tax rates. In the end, it is concluded that the economies of the three countries will grow to different levels in many ways when the Korea, China, and Japan free trade zone is established. Japan's telecommunications industry will not be significantly affected, Korea will grow significantly with higher tax rates and China will grow significantly with lower tax rates.