Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Minister for Trade Inkyo Cheong chaired the 38^th Trade Promotion Committee meeting on April 23 and led discussions on the progress of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Supply Chain and Clean Economy Agreements and forward-looking measures for their utilization.

 

With the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement having entered into force on April 17 in Korea, the ministry plans to selectively sort critical items and push joint projects, diversify import channels, and improve logistics through coordination with IPEF partner countries, all of which are anticipated to substantially contribute to Korea’s industrial supply chain stabilization.

 

Moreover, the Government intends to actively engage in the IPEF Clean Economy Investor Forum and IPEF Catalytic Capital Fund to widen Korean companies’ doors of opportunity in entering the KRW 200 trillion Indo-Pacific clean economy cooperation market.

 

Next, attendees discussed the progress on Korea-EU Digital Trade Agreement negotiations. As the existing Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) does not reflect the recent changes in digital trade, the need for digital trade rules improvement between the two sides is rising. Accordingly, the Korean government declared the commencement of negotiations for the bilateral digital trade agreement in October 2023 and has convened three official negotiating rounds thus far, with plans to swiftly proceed with negotiations in the future for establishing the bilateral digital trade agreement in line with the high standards of the Korea-EU digital trade principles.