A Study on the Implementation of the Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement(KSDPA) and the Interoperability of eBL

Korea has assumed critical normative obligations through the Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement (KSDPA, effective in January 2023), including a mandatory obligation to recognize electronic trade administration documents as legally equivalent to paper documents (Article 14.12(3)) and a best-efforts obligation to adopt the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) (Article 14.7(2)(b)). However, Article 862 of the Korean Commercial Code permits electronic bill of lading (eBL) issuance only through a government-designated registry, contravening MLETR’s technological neutrality principle. This study develops a legislative strategy by integrating KSDPA obligation analysis, a reinterpretation of UK, Singaporean and French legislative models through DPA compliance suitability, and empirical data from the FIT Alliance (2024) industry survey. Finding that no single pathway optimizes both compliance and feasibility, this study recommends a three-phase strategy: amending the Commercial Code and Electronic Trade Facilitation Act (short-term), incorporating MLETR’s exclusive control concept into the Framework Act on Electronic Transactions (medium-term), and enacting a unified special statute (long-term).