Creating a Roadmap for a 'Global New Trade Norm' Addressing Climate, Digital, and Supply Chain Challenges

2nd Subcommittee Meeting of the Trade Strategy Council

On the 14th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 2nd subcommittee meeting of the 'Trade Strategy Council' chaired by Deputy Trade Minister Yang Byeong-nae at the Coal Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, with participation from industry, academia, and specialized institutions.

This meeting was organized to discuss our response measures to emerging international trade norms related to climate and environment, digital, labor, and supply chains. Relevant organizations and experts from the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Korea Energy Economics Institute, Korea Information Society Development Institute, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, and Korea Labor Institute, as well as professors in related fields, participated.

The meeting featured presentations and discussions on three main topics: ▲Changes in global trade norms and response measures ▲Artificial Intelligence (AI) norms and global hegemony competition ▲Trends linking climate change, environment, and trade norms.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, during the discussion, experts and participants from related organizations explained, "Major countries such as the United States and the European Union (EU) are continuously advancing climate and environment-related legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the Clean Competition Act, as well as labor norms linked to industrial supply chains through supply chain due diligence guidelines." They added, "Recently, as the EU has strengthened regulations on big tech companies through the Digital Markets Act, fairness of platform companies has emerged as an issue, marking the beginning stage of norm formation in the digital sector."

The government has actively participated in bilateral and multilateral consultative bodies such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), climate clubs, and the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29) to proactively respond to discussions on forming global climate and environmental norms. Additionally, Korea is making comprehensive efforts to expand the Carbon-Free Alliance (CFA) and CFE initiatives proposed at the UN General Assembly last September.

Moreover, the government has responded not only to traditional digital trade areas such as e-commerce and data business but also to new digital trade norm issues including ▲AI norms ▲competition issues in the digital economy.

Deputy Trade Minister Yang stated, "As the linkage between labor and supply chains is strengthening recently, we plan to establish a roadmap to respond to global new trade norms related to climate and environment, digital, and supply chains by minimizing damage through analyzing our companies' supply chains and actively discovering opportunity factors."

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