The European Union (EU), which has led international discussions on global warming, officially announced its plan for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in July 2021. Many existing studies have indicated the CBAM will curtail greenhouse gases, and will subsequently be positive in terms of reducing global warming. However, serious legal issues and trade disputes are expected in terms of the compatibility of the CBAM with the trade rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Contrary to the EU’s explanation, the international community has a strong view of CBAM as a new trade barrier under the guise of preventing global warming. Above all, this is because it is an arbitrary measure by the EU and not the one that has been internationally agreed upon. Therefore, this paper tries to identify the pitfalls and estimate the global cost of CBAM, arguing that the mechanism is not in line with international trade rules, and that many countries will not sit back and suffer from it. The world economy will inevitably face a vicious cycle of trade retaliation. The CBAM will drive up trade costs and cause another trade distortion. While the goal of preventing climate change is good, the CBAM scheme is too costly for the world economy.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the American decoupling policy, the global value chains (GVCs) have been switched to regional GVCs, and, in the worst case, are subject to a potential alteration of reversing the GVCs, ultimately entailing a severe impact on international trade and the global energy market. This paper applies a quantitative approach using a computational general equilibrium (CGE) model to estimate the effects of the reverse GVC factors on the global economy, trade, and energy market. These reverse GVC factors will decrease the global GDP, and such effect will bring a greater influence on both China as well as the United States, which is pursuing decoupling. The increased trade costs due to these factors will reduce the GVC indices, mostly in ASEAN by 0.2~1.15%, followed by Korea, Japan and China. Surprisingly, the GVC index in the United States is expected to be strengthened due to the enhanced GVC with its allies such as Canada and Mexico. In China, the use of oil, gas and petroleum is expected to decrease by around 10%, and similar effects are expected in Korea and the EU. Among the world’s major energy producers, it is estimated that the US will reduce energy exports by 16–62% depending on the energy source, and the Middle East and Russia will significantly reduce their gas exports. The global energy market is shrinking, but in particular, the international gas market is expected to decrease by 27.3~38.6%.

The institute aims to become a representative institute in Northeast Asia in the research of logistics and trade.

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As a countermeasure to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are implementing social distancing and mask-wearing. In this situation, the use of digital devices and untact activities are increasing. As a result, domestic and international e-commerce is increasing, and data is growing rapidly. Developed countries with advanced artificial intelligence and big data technologies have been striving to establish international regulations for digital trade in order to create a business environment that is advantageous for their own companies. This paper examines the e-commerce trend since the outbreak of COVID-19 and analyzes major issues related to digital trade rules under discussion. In particular, this paper pointed out that although Korea is recognized to be an advanced country considering its stage of industrial development and income level, the nation maintains the position of developing countries regarding digital trade. Based on this, this paper attempted to draw implications for the development of Korea's digital trade in the post COVID-19 world.