On March 28, 2022, Prof. Moonsung Kang, the dean
of KU CIS and GSIS, joined the MOTIE’s (Ministry of
Trade, Industry, and Energy) IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework)
Public-Private Task Force Meeting as one of the two experts from the academia invited
for the meeting. The meeting had ten total private-sector experts including
Prof. Kang, and they discussed extensively Korea’s optimal response to the
launching of IPEF. The experts proposed that the Korean economy would benefit
greatly from participating in the IPEF if Korean firms could maintain their
international competitiveness in areas such as digital commerce, GVC (Global Value
Chain) participation, and production infrastructure.
As the US is trying to establish a new
international trade order in the Asia-Pacific region with the IPEF, the experts
suggested that Korea, as a top global trader, should participate in the IPEF
early and lead the new order by setting rules and regulations in the emerging
trade areas such as digital trade and climate change mitigation. Finally, they emphasized
that there needs to be a coordinated strategy between industrial and trade
policies to facilitate more cooperation between different sectors and maximize trade
efficiency with the IPEF.