Trade Secret Barriers Rise in International Commerce... "Korea's Urgent Need for Norm Establishment"

Ministry of Industry Holds 'New Trade Norms Expert Meeting'
Discussion on Recent Trends and Response Strategies in Intellectual Property Rights Trade Norms

Robert Lighthizer, United States Trade Representative (second from right), and Liu He, Vice Premier of China (second from left), leading the high-level US-China negotiation teams, are seen negotiating to resolve the trade war between the two countries on January 30 last year (local time) at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. During the high-level talks, the two countries agreed on intellectual property protection, but conflicts reignited afterward. On the 15th (local time), the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that the tariffs imposed by the US on China two years ago, citing intellectual property violations, were inconsistent with trade regulations. (Image source=Reuters Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government announced that on the 24th at 10 a.m., it will hold a "New Trade Norms Expert Meeting" via video conference at the government Sejong office meeting room. Experts emphasized the need to prepare prompt response measures as barriers in the field of intellectual property rights have increased on the international trade stage.

Advanced countries such as the United States and the European Union (EU) have recently specifically defined trade secret infringement in bilateral and multilateral agreements and are demanding a high level of trade secret protection, including responses to trade secret infringements.

Major trade agreement examples include the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which came into effect in December 2018, the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), equivalent to the Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) effective from February 2019, and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which came into effect last July.

The definition of trade secrets under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) includes information that ▲ is not generally known, ▲ has commercial value because it is secret, and ▲ is subject to reasonable measures to maintain its secrecy.

Experts suggested that it is necessary to introduce high-level trade secret protection norms in future FTA negotiations in line with the development of international norms. They advised that proactive efforts such as improving domestic systems are important.

Recently, discussions on trade norms capable of addressing intellectual property rights infringements, such as temporary reproduction occurring during the use of digital works, have been actively progressing in trade agreements like FTAs.

With technological advances, temporary storage acts such as caching during streaming services for music and transmission via search and networks are increasingly problematic as they may constitute copyright infringement.

The meeting also discussed preventing copyright infringement occurring in online environments where most content is transmitted, distributed, and consumed digitally.

Experts emphasized that to respond to copyright infringement due to the global spread of Korean Wave content such as music and broadcasting, it is necessary to introduce advanced norms through FTAs and establish effective remedies to enforce them.

An official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "This meeting helped in establishing strategies related to the latest intellectual property trade norms being discussed internationally," adding, "We will continue to strengthen communication with academia and industry in various trade norm fields going forward."

Earlier in July, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy co-hosted an origin rules briefing session for automobile and parts export companies in the Americas region. The event was jointly organized by the Ministry, the Korea International Trade Association, the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, and the Korea Automobile Industry Cooperative.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.