서비스･디지털무역의 비관세장벽과 통상법적 대응

From the outset of Trump's second term, the U.S. response to non-tariff barriers imposed by various countries has been strongly evident. The U.S. publicly declares that the expansion of non-tariff barriers on American goods and services is the fundamental factor deepening the U.S. trade deficit, and that it will no longer tolerate this. Particularly with the recent announcement of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan, pressure to eliminate non-tariff barriers in services and digital trade—areas closely linked to advanced technology—will intensify further. Therefore, this paper analyzes the concept and types of non-tariff barriers in services and digital trade. It also examines the main content and issues of Korea's non-tariff barriers in services and digital trade, as highlighted in the National Trade Estimate(NTE) Report. Reviewing non-tariff barriers in services and digital trade revealed significant overlap between trade-in-services and digital trade. In a context where the strict distinction between trade-in-goods and trade-in-services trade under WTO is diminishing, it appears more crucial in the era of digital transformation and AI to adopt a comprehensive approach that integrates non-tariff barriers across various sectors—including trade-in-services, trade-in-goods, government procurement, and technical barriers to trade—under the broader framework of digital trade, rather than striving to establish rigid boundaries between services trade and digital trade. Furthermore, Korea needs to actively explore ways to leverage trade pressure, rather than adopting a passive stance, to advance domestic regulations, increase foreign investment, and strengthen industrial competitiveness. Particularly considering the trend where non-tariff barriers across all sectors—government procurement, services trade, goods trade, and technical barriers to trade—are converging into digital trade barriers, Korea must position itself as a norm-shaper contributing to new rule-making, rather than merely accepting existing norms, especially in digital trade. Korea's experience in developing high-level domestic regulations on core issues such as cross-border data transfers, prohibitions on data localization, and personal information protection will be useful in this regard. Furthermore, while preparing for the possibility of sector-specific ‘tech deals’ under a reciprocal negotiation strategy in response to U.S. trade pressure, it is necessary to establish norms that can contribute to the reorganization of the global order by improving the fragmentation of domestic regulations.