국제경제협정에서 ‘비차별 원칙’의 공식적 포기인가? －‘공급망 재편’ 논의의 법적 함의－

Global supply chain reformulation or adjustment has become one of the pressing topics of the global community at the moment. It is an important national agenda for many countries, and various ‘legitimate’ policy objectives are involved in this process. Considering that states and their governments will continue to face a wide range of diverse emergencies in their international relations, this new trend of supply chain reformulation is likely to persist in the foreseeable future. As the supply chain reformulation is based on the notion that only a few like-minded states are selected to participate and only their corporations are permitted to join, it is discriminatory in principle and selective at its core. This trait of the supply chain reformulation implies that the long-cherished ‘non-discrimination’ principle of the international economic agreements is now perhaps standing on the verge of being discarded as a matter of policy. The fact that even the governments of key states are proclaiming supply chain reformulation publicly, it would amount to an ‘official’ or ‘semi-official’ abandonment of the cherished key principle of trade agreements and investment agreements. That being said, however, current debates and discussions on supply chains have hardly addressed legal issues or legal implications other than an assertion that any reformulation would be justified by national security exceptions. Noting that the supply chain reformulation currently being underway has the potential of discarding one of the cardinal principles of the existing international economic agreements and indicating a new course of direction for a future governance of the international economic regime, it is imperative that the international community undertake requisite legal analyses of the current supply chain discourse. For instance, how to institutionalize the ‘dual’ supply chains (i.e., one for the ordinary items and the other for core items subject to new supply chains) is a key task for a future endeavor. How to define supply chains to be targeted and core items to be included in the new supply chains so targeted is another pending task as well. Ensuring discussions and consensus building among participating governments and companies on an on-going basis is another issue to be addressed. Settling disputes in a flexible and creative manner by reflecting the amorphous and politically sensitive nature of the global supply chain reformulation is yet another task to be taken up. These discussions on legal issues and adequate preparation on legal aspects will help the global community seek supply chain reformulation in a sustainable and predictable manner.