디지털무역 자유화와 개인정보보호의 무역 제한적 요소에 대한 연구 : EU GDPR을 중심으로

This study was carried out to identify the impact of EU GDPR on international trade amid the ongoing digital trade liberalization. To do this, we first looked at the current trend of digital trade liberalization, the role of data in it, and the trade-restrictive elements of EU GDPR. This allowed us to identify the negative impact of GDPR on free trade. It then conducted an interview survey on Korean companies operating in the EU to verify the conclusions reached. The result of this survey showed that the level of GDPR risk perceived by Korean firms was very low compared with those of American, Japanese and Chinese firms. In particular, the impact of GDPR is not clear for Korea’s SMEs. It can be assumed that the reason for this is that Korean SMEs are not using data as a major business tool while the capability of SMEs is sufficient to cope with GDPR. In this regard, the government's appropriate policies and further research for SMEs are needed.