Korea International Trade Association (KITA) hosted a webinar on the practical use of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a multilateral trade agreement in the Asia and Pacific area, in cooperation with the Korean Embassy in China on Feb. 10. RCEP went into force on Feb. 1.
The government is ramping up support to expand Korean companies’ entry into emerging markets.
The webinar introduced RCEP, gave comparisons between Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA and RCEP, and explained each country’s concessional terms and strategies to utilize them and FTA Utilization Support Center’ support projects.
Ha Chun-ho, a customs attaché with the Korean Embassy in China, said, “Under the RCEP, all raw materials procured from 15 member countries can be recognized as items of the region’s origin, so Korean companies’ overseas market entry will have more of an advantage.”
Kim Suk-kyung, a customs officer with FTA Utilization Support Center’ China Desk, said RCEP allows not only institutions to issue certificates of origin and exporters, but also certificate exporters to do so on a voluntary basis.
Park Min-young, head of KITA’s Beijing Branch, expressed hope the webinar would be an opportunity for Korean companies to obtain tips for the utilization of the RCEP.
In a related development, the number of overseas FTA utilization centers will rise to 12 in the RCEP region.
The government plans to come up with strategies to expand trade and investments in the Southeast Asian markets in the first half of the year, calling for offering one-stop support, including origin information, consulting and marketing and utilization of RCEP, hallyu (Korean Wave) and e-Commerce transaction on top of Korean companies’ entry into supply chains networks in the ASEAN region.
The government is considering an analysis center designed to monitor the developments of supply chains in Korea and abroad to build an early warning system. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to ramp up support to utilize RCEP so Korean companies can enter new markets in the RCEP region.
‘KITA Does Utmost to Ramp Up Competitiveness of Member Companies and Raise Export Dynamics’
In his New Year’s message, Chairman Christopher Koo of Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said, “We’re facing with new challenges while overcoming a crisis, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the transition period, we have to make thorough preparations to seize the structural transition as an opportunity to secure new growth engines.”
Looking back at last year, he said the nation made an outstanding feat by topping $1 trillion won in trade in the shortest-ever time, and it proved to be a trade powerhouse that ranked eighth in terms of trade volume.
Chairman Koo said Korea achieved a leap forward in terms of both quantity and quality. Korean companies raised the competitiveness of mainstay businesses and promising new growth engine industries, based on innovation capabilities and dramatic investments.
The semiconductor and shipbuilding industries managed to retain their top positions with their super technology power while new industries such as EVs, batteries and bio/health had established themselves as future export engines with a double-digit growth rate.
Service exports such as K-POP, enjoy global popularity, drama and other culture content had grown fast, invigorating the innovation of the export structure.
“We’re facing with new challenges while overcoming a crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Chairman Koo said.
Each advanced country is coming up with a stream of policies to ramp up her own manufacturing capabilities, and the stabilizing of supply chains, coupled with an unstable raw materials supply, caused by abnormal weather conditions and demand hikes, emerge as a more important task.
Globally, nationalism priority and trade protectionism further prevailed in the wake of weakening multi-lateral trade order and the continued U.S.-China rivalry.
Each country is staging a fierce completion to secure an upper hand over international regulations in new areas such as environment, digital, labor and human rights, which emerged as new trading issues of late.
As discussions on carbon neutrality had heated up in the wake of the EU introducing the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a structural transition to low-carbon industries has become a task of the times.
“In the structural transition period, we have to make thorough preparations to seize the structural transition as an opportunity to secure new growth engines,” he said.
First, KITA will do its utmost to ramp up the competitiveness of member companies and raise export dynamics by coping with rapidly changing trade environment conditions.
KITA will strengthen digital-based services to member companies while concentrating its capabilities to solve complaints and difficulties exporters experience.
The association will lend an ear to the voices of member companies by introducing an online platform specializing in consultations related to exporting problems.
