The Trump administration in the United States strongly pressured the World Trade Organization (WTO) to make sweeping revisions to provisions related to developing country status, taking direct aim at Korea and others. The move is seen as an intention not to tolerate free-riding by countries whose economic standing has already risen to a global level, as they enjoy developing-country privileges and reap unfair gains.
On the 23rd (local time), the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said it submitted a brief document titled "Further Perspectives on WTO Reform" to the WTO General Council in Geneva, Switzerland. In the 12-page document, the United States urged high-intensity reforms across multiple areas, including the WTO's decision-making process, special and differential treatment (SDT), and essential security exceptions.
In particular, it pointed out the imbalanced structure in which countries whose economies have grown sufficiently to a global level continue to self-designate as developing countries and pocket unjustified preferences in the international trade system. SDT is a kind of discount benefit for developing countries. It encourages temporarily lowering the range of tariff cuts or significantly extending implementation periods so that developing countries can build competitiveness in international markets and protect their domestic industries.
According to the reform proposal, the United States revisited the precedent between 2019 and 2020 when Korea, Brazil, Singapore, and Costa Rica said they would forgo SDT in future WTO negotiations. However, it noted that even though these countries have effectively risen to the ranks of advanced economies, they are using this benefit as a shield to evade obligations to comply with global trade rules.
In fact, in 2019 Korea declared domestically and internationally that it would not claim developing-country preferences going forward in sectors such as agriculture. It later said it would not invoke SDT provisions in WTO negotiations, but the United States appears to judge that the Korean government still has not put forward perceptible measures for change regarding developing-country preferences. The United States argued that such voluntary renunciations cannot resolve the issue of SDT eligibility criteria and proposed creating new objective standards to apply across the membership.
The United States also spelled out a hard-line position that when members invoke "essential security" measures in the event of a trade dispute, the WTO should not intervene or provide an authoritative interpretation. This grants boundless legitimacy to indiscriminate protectionist measures taken by the United States—such as high tariffs imposed under the banner of national security, as in the Trump administration's tariff war. It indicates an intention not to accept any control imposed by external bodies like the WTO.
Experts said that, in the current situation where the Trump administration is raising trade barriers without strictly distinguishing between allies and non-allies, this amounts to a preemptive move to completely neutralize even the WTO's multilateral, rules-based sanctioning power—the last bulwark in trade disputes. They noted that if the WTO accepts this stance, it could provide even stronger justification for U.S. actions that legitimize, on security grounds, controls on core technologies such as advanced semiconductors.
If the United States strongly demands a wholesale revision of the multilateral global trade order to align with U.S. interests, uncertainty facing Korea's export-dependent economy and key industries is expected to grow even further.