1. On September 17-18, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (ROK) will hold a “Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) Capacity Building Workshop on E-Commerce Elements in Free Trade Agreements/ Regional Trade Agreements (FTAs/RTAs)” for officials who are directly involved in working-level negotiations on e-commerce issues of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)’s developing member economies in order to share the recent outcomes of discussions on e-commerce issues in the FTA and World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations.

○ The workshop will be held as part of APEC’s “Phase-3 Regional Economic Integration Capacity Building Needs Initiative (CBNI) for Developing Economies.” With the assistance of APEC, the ROK is carrying out the initiative in a bid to narrow gaps in capacities to negotiate FTAs between developed and developing member economies which are pointed out as one of the obstacles in realizing the FTAAP, which has been APEC’s long-term goal.

2. The event will consist of opening remarks delivered by Director-General for International Economic Affairs Kim Young-jae of the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, followed by presentations and discussions on “the Recent Developments and Perspectives on E-Commerce in the Asia-Pacific Region”; “Key Issues Related to E-Commerce at the WTO”; “Opportunities and Challenges of the E-Commerce Sector—from the Perspectives of Entrepreneurs”; “E-Commerce Issues in the FTA Negotiations”; and “Future Development of E-Commerce Norms.”

○ At the workshop, former Director of the Trade in Services and Investment Division of the WTO Hamid Mamdouh will give a presentation on key issues related to e-commerce negotiations at the WTO.

○ In addition, Assistant Professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy Lee Hyo-young, Professor at Seoul National University Lee Jae-min, Head of the India and South Asia Team at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) Kim Jeong-gon, Research Fellow at the Department of International Trade, Trade and Investment Policy Team of KIEP Lee Kyu-yub and Charles Julien, a counsel at White & Case, an international law firm in Geneva, will join the workshop as speakers.

3. In particular, the participants will hold discussions on current issues in the area of e-commerce such as the recent progress in the provisions of e-commerce in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which has been recently concluded, and key issues related to e-commerce negotiations at the WTO. In this light, the workshop is expected to contribute to facilitating discussions in APEC on the e-commerce issues which are rapidly growing each year around the world.

4. The ROK government will continue to contribute to reducing the gaps in negotiation capacities between developed and developing member economies in the Asia-Pacific region through continuous efforts to implement APEC’s Regional Economic Integration CBNI.