MC13 주요 의제 분석과 협상 대책(Analysis of Major Agendas at the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference: Korea’s Perspectives)

최근까지 WTO 협상 전반의 동향을 고려할 때 제13차 WTO 각료회의에서 큰 성과를 기대하기는 어려울 전망이다. 이에 이번 각료회의는 지금까지의 협상 결과를 정리하고 향후의 구체적인 협상 계획을 제시함으로써 다자협상의 동력을 유지하는 수준에서 마무리될 가능성이 높다. 우리나라는 회원국간 이견이 많이 좁혀진 의제에 초점을 맞추어 합의 도출에 기여하는 방향으로 협상에 임하되, 각료회의 마지막 순간 주요국 간에 주고받기식 절충이 일어날 가능성에 대해서도 유의해야 한다. The WTO’s 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13) will take place from 26 to 29 February 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirate. The Ministerial is expected to discuss follow-up agenda items from the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), such as fishery subsidies, the e-commerce moratorium, whether to extend intellectual property rights exemptions to diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19, and WTO reform. In addition, there may also be an attempt to incorporate into the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) into WTO law. Additionally, the e-commerce Joint Statement Initiative (JSI) may also attempt to conclude the negotiations at MC13. Agriculture and development, traditional issues in WTO multilateral negotiations, are also expected to be discussed at MC13 regardless of whether there is an agreement or not. Finally, issues such as women and trade, climate change, and industrial policy (subsidies), which has recently attracted much international attention, are expected to be discussed at MC13. The direction of Korea’s negotiation response in preparation for MC13 can be summarized as follows. First of all, the possibility of reaching a consensus at MC13 must be analyzed first. In other words, since the negotiation period for a ministerial meeting is only 3 to 4 days, it is virtually impossible to reach an agreement through short negotiations unless the agenda is one in which the differences among member countries have been significantly narrowed in advance. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the possibility of reaching agreement on each agenda and to focus negotiating strength on those agendas on which agreement can be reached. From this perspective, the fisheries subsidies negotiations and the e-commerce JSI are agendas that have narrowed much of the differences between member countries through previous intensive negotiations. It is expected that most fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing (OC/OF) will be prohibited. In addition, Korea is likely to be amongst the 20 largest providers of fisheries subsidies, so it will be subject to additional regulations.(the rest omitted)