The Analysis on Managing Costs of Rules of Origin by Korean Companies in their Application of FTAs

국내기업의 FTA 활용에 따른 원산지 관리비용 분석

This study attempts to analyze the trade costs of domestic firms utilizing the FTAs in terms of burden of expenses in managing the rules of origin. In doing so, we classify the managing costs of FTA rules of origin into three categories (that is, (i) ex ante costs from acquiring necessary information and building the infrastructure in the advance stage before the FTAs, (ii) the actual costs of the origin management in the application stage of FTA preferential treatment, (iii) ex post management cost in the preparation stage of origin verification) and perform a survey on the greater details on each category. Using the comprehensive results from the survey regarding domestic firm's use of FTAs, this paper also discusses the issues related to small and medium-sized firms and addresses the concerns involved with their managing costs of FTA rules of origin. Importantly, this paper emphasizes the importance of government supports to reduce inefficiency induced by the additional costs that domestic firms face in their use of FTAs and proposes the various policy implications regarding the managing costs of rules of origin.