Minister Moon Seung-wook: "Korea Also Interested and Participating in IFCP Discussions"

Meeting with Mathias Cormann, OECD Secretary-General

Minister Moon Seung-wook of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is delivering the opening remarks at the 2nd Carbon Neutral Industrial Transition Promotion Committee held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 17th. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] On the 9th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that Minister Moon Seung-wook and Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), discussed cooperation measures on global issues. Minister Moon conveyed that Korea is also interested in and will participate in discussions on the Inclusive Framework on Carbon Pricing (IFCP) proposed by the OECD.

On the same day, Minister Moon held a luncheon meeting with Secretary-General Cormann at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul to discuss key issues such as post-pandemic economic recovery, supply chains, climate change, and responses to the digital economy. This meeting was arranged at the suggestion of Secretary-General Cormann during his visit to Korea to attend the 'OECD Southeast Asia Program Ministerial Meeting' hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Minister Moon mentioned that the Korean economy is realizing economic security and recovering economic vitality centered on exports through managing supply chain risks, overcoming the materials, parts, and equipment crisis, and fostering core and new industries. Regarding climate change response, he explained that Korea has recently begun to actively pursue carbon neutrality challenges, including raising its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets, and is promoting a major transformation of the energy and industrial structure based on the Green New Deal framework.

Minister Moon evaluated the OECD’s role in this field, stating, "International cooperation is important to make carbon reduction efforts by each country more efficient and to avoid side effects such as trade restrictions." He also said, "The Inclusive Framework on Carbon Pricing (IFCP) proposed by the OECD is expected to play a useful role in appropriately evaluating carbon reduction efforts by major countries including Korea in the future," and added, "Korea will also take an interest and participate in discussions going forward." The IFCP is a framework through which the OECD evaluates and shares country-specific policy measures linked to carbon pricing and promotes the spread of best practices through dialogue.

Regarding the response to the digital economy, Korea is digitalizing its economic and industrial systems through various laws and policies based on the Digital New Deal policy, he added. He also argued that technical discussions on remaining issues need to proceed to ensure that excessive burdens do not arise for Korean export companies in relation to the digital tax.

Minister Moon pointed out the importance of maintaining fair competition conditions as the government’s role grows in pandemic response, and conveyed that Korea, as a market economy country based on openness and transparency, will continue its policy of strengthening corporate competitiveness and contributing to OECD discussions through the Steel Committee, Shipbuilding Working Group, and others.

Furthermore, Minister Moon requested that the Secretary-General take an interest in expanding Korean participation in the OECD to enhance cooperation between the Korean government and the OECD.

In response, Secretary-General Cormann said, "Korea is a model for many OECD countries not only in pandemic response but also in economic recovery," and added, "We expect Korea’s active role and contribution in sharing best practices and policy coordination discussions at the OECD in the future."

He also stated, "Based on a high-level digital infrastructure, Korea is rapidly advancing digital transformation," and urged, "Since the OECD is aiming to implement the digital tax system in 2023, we ask Korea to actively cooperate in this effort."

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