Government "Focusing Negotiation Power on 'IPEF and Digital Trade' in the Second Half of This Year"

Additional IPEF Achievements Within the Year
Push to Initiate Negotiations for 'Digital Trade Agreement' with the EU

The government has decided to focus on intensive negotiations in the second half of the year to achieve additional outcomes within this year, following the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) supply chain agreement reached last May. Furthermore, it plans to initiate negotiations for a digital trade agreement with the European Union (EU), the world's third-largest economic bloc, within the year, and to commence negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA), a new concept of free trade agreements (FTA), with seven promising countries.

On the 18th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 35th Trade Promotion Committee meeting chaired by Ahn Deok-geun, Director-General for Trade Negotiations, where they discussed ▲ future plans for IPEF ▲ plans to promote the Korea-EU digital trade agreement ▲ plans to advance EPA negotiations ▲ and plans to finalize negotiations for Guatemala's accession to the Korea-Central America FTA.

First, the meeting discussed the response plan for the 5th IPEF negotiations to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from the 10th to the 16th of next month. This negotiation is the first official meeting in two months since the 4th round held in Busan last July. Measures to achieve additional outcomes within the year under IPEF are expected to be discussed. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to initiate consultations with participating countries and implementation bodies to select key sectors and items for cooperation, ensuring the agreement functions as a supply chain safety net.

Next, plans to promote the Korea-EU digital trade agreement were also discussed. Currently, the digital trade provisions in the Korea-EU FTA consist of only two articles. Accordingly, both Korea and the EU agreed on the 'Korea-EU Digital Trade Principles' last November and have since been discussing the promotion of a bilateral digital trade agreement. The Ministry plans to continue consultations with the EU aiming to start negotiations on the digital trade agreement within the year and to proceed smoothly with related domestic procedures.

Negotiations to commence Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) within the year are also planned with seven countries including three African nations?Kenya, Tanzania, and Morocco?as well as Thailand, Pakistan, Serbia, and the Dominican Republic. EPA is a new concept of FTA that relaxes liberalization and regulatory standards while strengthening cooperation elements. To this end, the Ministry will hold a public hearing on the 25th to gather opinions from stakeholders. Additionally, after over two years of negotiations, the government plans to finalize Guatemala's accession to the Korea-Central America FTA, which includes five Central American countries (Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua), within the year.

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