Jinwoo Rhee. "MRAs and Transparency under the WTO agreement:Based on empirical analysis of factors affecting conclusion of AEO MRA." 5, 2 (2021): 113-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.23161/jiet.2021.5.2.113.
-Abstact-
On February 22, 2017, the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation came into force and the Authorized Economic Operator(AEO) program has a legal base in the WTO Agreement. In the future, the AEO program will be spread, and WTO members need to maximize its trade facilitation effect by signing the AEO MRA more actively. Therefore, this article aimed to suggest a strategy for signing the AEO MRA through enhancing transparency under WTO Agreements, which requires higher transparency to WTO members regarding the import/export process and customs clearance. This article explains the significance of the AEO MRA and the elements of transparency under the GATT and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. Then, this article conducts empirical analysis to estimate the effect of the elements of transparency under the WTO Agreement on the signing of the AEO MRA with the panel probit model. The result of empirical analysis shows appropriate information accessibility, uniformed and impartial regulation administration, and judicial independency promotes the conclusion of AEO MRA. This article suggests several measures to improve transparency for promoting the conclusion of MRAs; actively participating in the information exchange through international cooperation between customs authorities, supporting developing countries so that developing countries can easily access information provided by the official authority, managing regulatory programs by the single authority and rearranging regulations about the programs. In addition, this article emphasizes that transparency can be improved by guaranteeing the independence and fairness of the judicial process against the government’s regulatory enforcement for conclusion of MRAs.