Korea's Multilateral Trade Policies in the Changing Global Trade Landscape

Abstract

Global trade growth has been depressed since 2010. What is worse is that the WTO cut 2016 global trade growth forecast to 1.7%, down from its previous estimate of 2.8%. On the other hand, plurilateral negotiations are rapidly becoming widespread in the WTO negotiations. The first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal was adopted by 195 countries. There is a rapid spread of increasing anger over globalization. Furthermore, the next WTO Ministerial Conference will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early December 2017. However, the Trump administration is developing a national trade policy that would seek to diminish the influence of the WTO in the United States. What should the new direction for Korea's multilateral trade policy be in such a changing global trade environment? New directions of Korea's multilateral trade policies are suggested as follows. Korea has to make efforts to secure enough flexibility in the reduction of both total and product-specific AMS (aggregate measure of support), since AMS of rice accounts for more than 90% of the Total AMS of Korea. Second, Korea should actively participate in both the U.S.-led plurilateral discussions on fishery subsidies and multilateral negotiations led by the EU, if it is to reflect its interests in the process of rule-making on fishery subsidies. The new multilateral trade policy of Korea should aim to spread benefits of trade liberalization out to the whole stakeholders, particularly focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Korea should prepare for the proliferation of plurilateral negotiations led by developed countries. Finally, we have to think of environmental subsidies as green subsidies, which are allowed in the WTO system.