South Korea’s trade minister stated that as governments increasingly pay attention to supply chain resiliency and ensure access to next-generation technologies, the coronavirus pandemic has forced a “fundamental shift” in global trade policies.

Yeo Han-koo said in an interview with the Financial Times that the traditional concentration on market access and supply chain efficiency no longer exists.

“The scope of our trade policy before the pandemic-basically just market opening for trade in goods and services, rules of origin, etc.-is not the trade policy we have witnessed in this new era,” Yang said.

“Digitalization, supply chain vulnerabilities, and setting the rules of the road for emerging technologies: these are new challenges.”

Yeo cited the severe shortage of diesel engine exhaust in November as an example of a supply chain shock, which disturbed policy makers.

South Korea relies on China for more than 97% of DEF imports. But after Beijing restricted urea exports, the country’s logistics sector faced imminent paralysis. The South Korean military was forced to airlift tens of thousands of liters of liquid from Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

“It’s not even a high-tech product, but one morning when we woke up we realized that we only depend on one country. We need an early warning system to prevent these situations from developing into serious things,” Yeo said.

According to data from the World Bank, South Korea is the world’s eighth largest exporter of goods and services. The booming trade in chips, cars and ships is pushing the country’s economy to recover from the Covid crisis, and it is expected that this year’s exports and trade volumes will reach record levels.

Asia’s fourth largest economy announced this month that it is preparing to apply Join the Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Progress AgreementAfter China applied to join a regional trade agreement, Seoul feared that it would disrupt its largest trading partner.

However, it is not clear how Japan will receive the formal application from Seoul, which is expected to be submitted before the end of the term of President Moon Jae-in in May.

These countries are involved in a dispute at the World Trade Organization concerning the export control imposed by Tokyo on South Korean semiconductor components in 2019, which is related to Japan’s occupation of South Korea during the war. All members of the CPTTP must approve any new entrants to the agreement.

Yang admitted that “we have not really had the opportunity to have an in-depth dialogue”, but insisted that the responsibility for improving the relationship lies solely with Tokyo.

“It was Japan that implemented these export control measures. Since then, South Korea has corrected all the problems raised by Japan,” he said. “So now it is Japan’s turn to put forward a more positive and constructive position to see how we can solve this problem.”

In addition, Yang insisted that Seoul would not “choose sides” in the US-China dispute.

“The previous balance of US-China relations has been broken, so now everyone is re-adjusting to find a new balance,” Yang said.

He added that South Korea and the like-minded government “do not want this conflict to cause more serious chaos in the world economy”.

“It’s not just South Korea. Many countries in the region are facing similar situations.”

Seoul has worked closely with the Biden administration to implement Washington’s priorities in areas such as electric vehicles and semiconductors.

Yeo praises U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai for intervening Mediation and settlement Ended the fierce dispute between the battery manufacturing subsidiaries of South Korean companies SK and LG.

This disagreement threatens the future of SK’s $2.6 billion battery plant in Georgia, the United States, and the plans of Ford and Volkswagen to manufacture electric vehicles in the United States.

“Katherine Tai’s intervention has saved thousands of jobs and the U.S. and South Korea electric vehicle battery supply chains,” Yeo said. “This is an example of what an active trade authority can do.”

But he admitted that the United States requested detailed information on chip supply and demand, inventory and different customer groups, which made South Korean chip makers uneasy.

“The company is concerned that this information may reveal sensitive information related to its consumers and their trade secrets,” he said. “We have expressed our concerns, and the United States has also expressed understanding of this concern.”

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