WTO 보조금협정과 탄소배출권 무상할당

Last April, the Korean government has announced to introduce emission trading system from January 1 of 2015, which stretched the timetable for its introduction out further two years and increased percentage of free carbon allowances in response to strong opposition from domestic industries. Under the system, yet to be approved by the Assembly, the percentage for free allowances is over 95 percent and the rest will be put to an auction. The system is part of its efforts to attain legitimate environmental goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from BAU level by 2020. In this globalized trade environment, however, such a market intervention by the government, even though non-trade measure, would inevitably affect trades with other countries, raising several issues of WTO legitimacy. Among others, this study focuses on issues related to the legality of free carbon emission allowance under the law of WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement). The proposed conclusions of this study are as follow. First, in the theoratical aspect, the free allowance alone seems not to be inconsistent with the SCM Agreement because the specificity will not be found. On the other hand, in the practical aspect, there are a number of issues to be considered. For instance, under the grandfathering method of allocation, the problem of over-allowance of carbon emission rights may arise. Also, once the government tries to change the scheme into the allocation by auction gradually, the risk of WTO inconsistency would increase. The international community must look into the issue more carefully and discuss all the possible solutions.