Issue Korea-EU cooperation on WTO reform and a rules-based trading order

Summary

Both Korea and the EU depend heavily on foreign trade and need a predictable trading environment. In responding to unilateral US tariffs and China's non-market industrial support, both face the same double task of upholding a rules-based order while protecting domestic industry from unfair practices. The report therefore calls for closer cooperation on WTO reform, dispute settlement, digital trade, industrial subsidies and economic coercion. Dialogue between the EU and CPTPP members could widen this cooperation, and Korea, which has an FTA and a digital trade agreement with the EU and has pursued CPTPP accession, has an institutional point of entry into EU-CPTPP trade, investment, supply-chain and digital trade talks. Because that dialogue is still at the stage of sectoral discussions and work plans rather than a comprehensive agreement, the report advises building cooperation first on concrete items such as digital trade, customs, supply-chain transparency and WTO reform.