한${\cdot}$싱가포르 자유무역협정에 관한 연구: 전자상거래를 중심으로

A Study of Korea-Singapore Free Trade Agreement: Focused on Electronic Commerce

Free trade agreements have fast grown into a global phenomenon and their impact and repercussions are felt more strongly everyday. Korea, joining this large trend of the global economy, is currently pressing ahead with its negotiation rounds for FTA. In this paper, we focus on the e-commerce sector affected by the Korea-Singapore FTA, and the main issues and the future countermeasure directions of e-commerce on FTA has been analyzed. In conclusion, FTA is not an option even though there are still many remaining issues to be discussed regarding its effects. We identified countries excluding themselves from FTA are losing international competitiveness, and moreover, the losing competitiveness will end up more serious problems since the importance of FTA is especially high for e-commerce, as e-commerce accounts for a growing share of international trade. This paper also discusses the far-reaching potential consequences of the content of an international agreement at a government-to-government level on the economy and industry of a country by presenting past examples from. Korea, and recommends that policy-makers should exercise extreme vigilance in their negotiation of terms and conditions for FTA.