Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |
South Korea became the first country acceded to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) in order to expand its digital trade network, said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Monday June 12,2023.
South Korea’s Trade Minister Ahn Duk-guen announced that Korea has officially acceded to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) as a first non-founding member, signifying the expansion of the global digital trade network for securing digital economy competitiveness.
On June 9, Trade Minister Ahn met with his counterparts from the three DEPA founding members in Paris on
the sidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Ministerial Council meeting, and they substantially concluded discussions for Seoul's joining of the pact, according to the press release of the Ministry.
DEPA came into effect in 2021, when Korea completed all required six rounds of negotiations and internal legal review following its application submission on October 5, as the counterparts Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore struck up the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement (DEPA) in 2020.
DEPA is the world’s first multilateral digital trade agreement established among the member states of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), such as Singapore, Chile and New Zealand. Following Korea’s application, China and Canada also began their accession procedures, also countries in Latin America and the Middle East, such as Costa Rica and Peru, are showing interest, indicating that DEPA holds much potential to grow into a global digital cooperation framework.
DEPA define the rules and cooperation needed for harmony among member states for fostering a stable data business environment and for expanding e-commerce.
Accordingly, it is anticipated that DEPA will serve as a basis on which ASEAN, Oceania and Latin America can function as major hubs, where overseas market opportunities for Korean firms’ e-commerce, digital content and services can broaden in scope and in the range of their benefits.
The Korean government aims to push forward with remaining procedures so that the Agreement can enter into force by the end of this year.
