한·몽 경제동반자협정(EPA) 체결에 관한 연구

A study on the signing of the Korea-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement

On September 10, 2021, South Korea and Mongolia upgraded their relationship to a ‘Strategic partnership’, and discussions are underway on the signing of the Korea-Mongolia Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). This paper presents the results of research on service liberalization in the two countries in relation to the conclusion of the economic partnership agreement between the two countries. According to the results of this study, Korea is at 54% and Mongolia is at the level of 19% in the case of service sector opening based on the GATS standard. When negotiations on the conclusion of an economic partnership agreement begin, there is a high possibility that the service sector will be opened to a higher level than this level and investment in the service sector of both countries will increase. Looking at Korea’s service liberalization method in regional trade agreements, the positive method was mainly used in regional agreements and agreements with Asian countries, and the negative method was used with countries outside of Asia. In addition, recently, Korea tends to prefer the negative method, and Korea is requesting a high level of liberalization of service trade. Based on experience in negotiations with Japan, Mongolia is highly likely to assume a positive method to service trade liberalization. Therefore, it is considered that the cases of Korea and Vietnam can be used in the service trade liberalization negotiations between Korea and Mongolia. In service trade negotiations with Korea, Mongolia, like other developing countries, is interested in manpower transfer, and it is desirable to negotiate manpower transfer, especially professional manpower and experts, in negotiations between the two countries.