South Korea joins trade agreement formed by S’pore, Chile and New Zealand

SINGAPORE - South Korea has joined a digital trade agreement

set up in 2020 by Singapore, Chile and New Zealand.

The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (Depa) aims to foster trade by regulating issues related to the digital economy, including data flows and protection and artificial intelligence.

Members can use it to establish trade rules in the digital economy as well as lower barriers to trade and connectivity, which in turn, will lower costs and improve efficiency.

It also allows them to collaborate in emerging areas that might affect digital trade, said Singapore’s Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran.

Mr Iswaran and ministers from Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and South Korea met on the sidelines of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris on Thursday, when it was announced that talks on South Korea’s accession to the Depa have substantially concluded.

This makes South Korea the first partner outside of founding members Chile, New Zealand and Singapore to join the agreement.

“(The) Depa parties and South Korea have agreed to collaborate further on projects of mutual interest in areas such as electronic invoicing, consumer protection, the exchange of electronic trade documents and cross-border data transfers,” said Mr Iswaran.

Singapore has similar trade pacts with other countries, such as Australia and Britain. Singapore and Britain also signed a digital trade agreement which

came into force in June 2022

that allows consumers and businesses to transact online more seamlessly.

In 2022, Singapore and South Korea

inked the Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement,

which came into force this January.