AmCham Hosts 'Policy Seminar on Global Digital Trade Agreement'

Assessing the Impact of Technical Regulations like 'Cloud Security Certification' on Digital Trade Agreements

American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM)

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) held a policy seminar on the 6th at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) headquarters, jointly with the Foreign Investment Ombudsman, titled "Measures to Resolve Korea's Technical Regulations for Integration into the Global Digital Trade Agreement System."

This seminar was organized to discuss solutions and alternatives to technical regulations that could hinder Korea's successful integration into the global digital trade agreement system. The event examined the impact of technical regulations such as 'cloud security certification' on digital trade agreements and analyzed the existing global digital trade agreement systems that the Korean government is pursuing membership in to promote overseas expansion and competitiveness of the digital industry.

The seminar's keynote presentation was delivered by Professor Kim Tae-yoon of Hanyang University's College of Policy Science, who emphasized the changes in the global trade environment where tensions inevitably arise between countries over various issues such as digital services, data, platform companies, and taxation. He also mentioned the emergence of digital trade agreement systems recently in countries including the United States, Singapore, Australia, and Japan, highlighting new areas arising from the advancement of digital technology that cannot be regulated by existing WTO norms or individual free trade agreements.

Following the keynote, a panel discussion was moderated by Professor Lee Han-young of Chung-Ang University's Department of Economics. Representing academia, legal, industry, and public sectors, the panel included Dr. Kim Seung-min from the Korea Information Society Development Institute, Professor Kwak Dong-chul from Kyungpook National University's Department of Economics and Trade, Attorney Roh Kyung-won from Kim & Chang Law Firm, and CEO Lee Moo-sung of the information security specialist company MLsoft, among other trade and multiple digital policy and technology experts.

During the discussion, experts pointed out that CSAP certification standards, such as the 'physical network separation' requirement for public institutions and financial institutions' servers and the mandatory application of domestic standard encryption technologies like ARIA and SEED, impose excessive burdens not only on overseas operators but also on domestic cloud providers. These factors are acting as obstacles to digital transformation efforts in the public sector and to private companies' entry into the public procurement market.

James Kim, Chairman and CEO of AMCHAM, stated, "The pandemic has brought about a dramatic digital transformation that is reshaping the global economic landscape, and digital technology is now the core of future innovation." He added, "We are very proud that American companies such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft are leading advanced technology as pioneers."

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