• 한국항만경제학회지
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.93-106
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• 2020

무역은 국가 경제에 중요한 경제활동이다. 특히, WTO 출범 이후 2001년 중국의 WTO 가입, 다자간 무역체계의 확립, 자유무역협정(FTA) 등으로 무역의 범위가 확대되고, 국가 간 무역장벽의 완화 및 통합화로 인해 무역시장의 규모가 확대되고 있다. 그러나 무역시장 규모가 확대됨에도 불구하고, 2008년 글로벌 금융위기, 2016년 브렉시트, 2018년 미·중 무역전쟁과 같은 극단적인 사건 발생하여 무역시장이 직접적으로 타격받고 있다. 이에 본 연구는 무역활동을 대변하는 변수인 국제 해운 운임지수와 미국, 중국 무역 불확실성 사이의 의존구조를 분석 하였다. 분석 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 미국, 중국 무역 불확실성과 국제 해운 운임지수 조합의 결합분포가 각각 Frank copula, rotated Clayton copula 270°으로 나타나, 미국, 중국 국가별로 동일한 분포 구조를 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, Kendall's tau 상관관계를 살펴보면, 국제 해운 운임지수와 미국, 중국 무역 불확실성 사이에 음(-)의 의존성을 갖지만, 의존성 정도는 중국 무역 불확실성과 국제 해운 운임지수의 조합에서 더 크게 나타났다. 즉, 전 세계 수요와 무역 불확실성의 의존성은 미국보다 중국이 더 강하다는 것을 확인하였다. 마지막으로, 꼬리 의존성 결과를 살펴보면, 미국, 중국 무역 불확실성과 국제 해운 운임지수가 서로 독립적인 관계로 나타났다. 이는 무역 불확실성의 극단적인 사건 혹은 국제 해운 운임지수의 극단적인 사건이 발생해도 서로 영향을 받지 않는 것으로 의미한다.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.82-100
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• 2020

Purpose - This paper attempts to compare five free trade agreements with gender chapters ratified by Chile and Canada and derives lessons for Korea in terms of gender-aware trade policy. While Chile and Canada have three and two FTAs with gender chapter respectively, Korea has none so far, although it has already ratified an FTA with the two countries. Design/methodology - This study first investigates all the gender-provisions with the gender chapters, conducts a comparative analysis on the five chapters as well as a case study of one target FTA's implementation and achievements, and finally suggests policy implications for Korea's trade administration as well as trade-related agencies. Findings - According to the analysis, there are three phases in terms of advancement in gender-related trade policy. As Chile is in phase two and Canada is in phase three, Korea remains in phase one. It has a ministry related to gender within the government, but not within the OMT. It has statistics on female business, but not of women traders. It has a few gender-related provisions in its FTAs, but not a gender chapter. In this sense, new mandates related to gender-aware trade policy for OMT, KITA, and KOTRA should be provided to realize the concrete economic benefits resulting from empowering women traders and policies promoting them. Originality/value - Existing studies only focus on introducing gender-related international commitments and Korea's participation in them. This paper is the first attempt to compare actual gender chapters of five FTAs ratified by two countries with the most advanced gender chapters in the world. To gain benefits from the positive gender impact of trade agreements, negotiating and signing gender responsive FTA with future partners is one of the most efficient, as well as inclusive, trade policies urgently needed for Korea.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• 제23권7호
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• pp.83-95
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• 2019

Purpose - This study analyzed the effect of the Trump Government's protectionist trade policies on foreign ownership. Specifically, this study empirically analyzes the hypothesis that foreign ownership will decrease after the Trump Government rather than before the Trump Government. Design/methodology - The hypothesis of this study is based on the expectation that US protection trade policy will negatively affect the profitability of Korean companies. The dependent variable in this study is the foreign ownership ratio, and the independent variable is a dummy variable representing before and after the Trump Government. Multiple regression analysis was performed, including the control variables suggested in previous studies related to foreign ownership. Findings - As a result, foreign ownership increased after the Trump Government rather than before the Trump Government. This study further analyzes whether the main variables affecting foreign investor's decision-making are differences before and after Trump Government. The export ratio, profitability and dividends did not differ before and after Trump Government. However, the level of information asymmetry decreased after the Trump Government than before the Trump Government. This suggests that US protection trade policies do not adversely affect the profitability of Korean companies. However, Korean firms are improving their information environment because US protectionist trade policies can lower profitability and negatively impact capital raising. In this regard, the foreign ownership ratio seems to differ before and after the Trump Government. Originality/value - This study contributes in that it presents data that US protectionist policies can affect Korean corporate governance. This study has implications from the short-term analysis of US protection trade policy.

• 무역학회지
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• 제46권2호
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• pp.107-119
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• 2021

Using a trade policy, government can shift profits from foreign firms to domestic firms. This paper will reexamine how asymmetric information can affect the equivalence of tariff and quota in a duopoly, where one domestic firm competes with one foreign firm. It can happen that the domestic firm has informational advantage against the government. Within this framework, the domestic firm has private information about own marginal cost as well as the foreign firm's. The domestic firm would exploit the advantage to draw a favorable policy from the government. When the government is misled, social welfare would decline. This paper will guide how the government can extract information from the domestic firm by offering a menu of tariff or quota. Previous studies showed that quota demands information more than tariff. With the principle of revealed information, the domestic firm chooses tariff (quota) if the marginal cost of foreign firm is low (high). The quota level will be high (low) if the marginal cost of domestic firm is high (low). To prevent misrepresentation, the domestic firm should be charged when quota is implemented. When the quota level is low, the domestic firm is charged additionally. This paper can contribute to the literature of trade policy and information.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.27-48
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• 2022

In the past decade, Korea and Japan have increasingly exhibited different strategic priorities in trade in face of China's rising global economic prowess and worsening US-China trade conflict. Japan's trade policy decisions have worked to reinforce its economic and security ties with the US as a means to counter China. Japan has used both bilateral and multilateral means to secure its ties with the US against China. In contrast, Korea's trade policy positions have been one of 'strategic ambiguity'. Korea has been more conciliatory towards China, reluctant to take actions that would counter China's interest. Korea has mainly resorted to bilateral channels to maintain favorable relations with both China and the US. Korea's reluctance to clearly ally with the US against China has been observed across different administrations with opposing political orientations. This paper examines Korea and Japan's diverging strategic priorities in trade through the 2017 World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference; the 2017 US imposition of Section 232 on steel; the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Korea-US FTA renegotiation and the Korea-China FTA Phase Two Negotiation; and the 2019 Japan-US Trade Agreement.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.3-35
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• 2016

This paper analyses the new discipline on state-owned enterprises contained in the recently concluded Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, and evaluates various factors that influenced the shaping of its specific rules. The new discipline consolidates and strengthens related provisions in current trade regimes, reflects various aspects of trade disputes between China and the US, and adopts, as its general underlying rationale, the principle of competitive neutrality. The new discipline contains elements that may challenge the multilateral trade regime, and may serve as a role model in regulating state-owned enterprises, including subsidies in services trade in other on-going trade negotiations. The new regime makes us think hard about fundamental issues regarding enforcement of competition policy against state-owned enterprises, treatment of non-market economies, and how to deal with effects of subsidies in international trade, bringing competition issues back on the trade agenda.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.337-348
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• 2020

Although the WTO has fulfilled several key tasks it was set up to do - providing periodic reviews of members' trade policies, resolving disputes, supporting negotiations - with the notable exceptions of the Trade Facilitation and Information Technology agreements, WTO members have not been able to negotiate new rules on "bread and butter" trade policies. The importance of doing so was illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic which saw widespread uncoordinated recourse to trade policy instruments. This paper highlights four reforms that would bolster the effectiveness of the WTO as a forum for trade cooperation: (1) improving collection and reporting of information on trade-related policies; (2) supporting analysis-informed deliberation to establish a common understanding of the need and scope for cooperation in specific policy areas; (3) putting in place a stronger multilateral governance framework for plurilateral cooperation between groups of WTO members; and (4) reestablishing an effective dispute settlement system.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.33-71
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• 2021

Many different approaches and databases have been developed for the evaluation of non-tariff measures (NTMs) and free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper is devoted to the EU-South Korea agreement, which is the first 'second-generation' FTA of the EU, addressing a wide array of non-tariff policies. We review the evolution of NTM types applicable to the EU-South Korea trade relationship and the role of NTMs in ex-ante and ex-post analyses of the agreement. Subsequently a structural gravity model is employed to assess the value added of information on different aspects of FTAs and types of NTMs by evaluating their ability to predict the trade effects of the EU-South Korea FTA. Our results show that, when accounting for information on the components common in modern deep trade agreements, no additional trade effect is attributable to the EU-South Korea FTA. The evolution of NTMs differs considerably across indicators used, but trade predictions are hardly affected. Most specifications point towards a negative effect of bilateral differences in the number of technical barriers to trade (TBT) applied and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) against which trading partners issued complaints at the WTO.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.41-60
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• 2022

Purpose - The policy implications of free trade agreements have traditionally been a matter of debate among economists. The official signing of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement provides economists with a quasi-natural experiment to analyze the FTA's policy effects. This article aims to more accurately understand the impact of Korea's FTA accession on the macro economy. Design/methodology - This study adopts the counterfactual method based on panel data to find common factors in the generation process of macro data to fit the counterfactual path, to accurately evaluate the effect of the macro policy. Findings - Our research results show that the signing of the Korea-China FTA has a relatively significant short-term positive effect on Korea's economic growth. On average, Korea's real GDP growth rate has increased by 2.1%. This study finds evidence in support of FTA signing not having a significant impact on Korea's GDP growth in the long run. Additionally, we evaluated the impact of the FTA on Korea's imports and exports and found that it had a significant positive impact in the short term, but the trade effect of the FTA is significantly affected by the external macro-environment. Originality/value - First, this study uses macro panel data at the national level to examine the impact of the Korea-China FTA on Korea, and more accurately describes the policy effect of the FTA. Second, our empirical results show that the Korea-China FTA policy impact is subject to occasional changes in the external environment, such as the geopolitical conflict (crisis) between Korea and China, and the US-China trade war. Finally, the analysis shows that the short-term effect of FTA is significant but the long-term is uncertain, which provides empirical evidence for the debate on whether joining FTA can promote national economic growth.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.118-137
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• 2019

Purpose - As global trade disputes intensify and global trade uncertainty increases due to the prevailing trade protectionism all over the world, mega-FTAs such as the RCEP and CPTPP are suggested as strategic trade policy options for export-driven small open economies, such as Korea. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of Korea's mega-FTA participation and the induced implications for the Korean economy. Design/methodology - We use a multi-region, multi-sector global CGE model, and investigate the different effects of both the US-China and US-EU trade wars on the relative changes in GDP, welfare, and trade under different trade policy regimes; (i) Korea does not participate in any mega-FTA, (ii) Korea participates in the RCEP, and (iii) Korea participates in the CPTPP. Findings - We show, among others, that though industrial effects might be largely varied, the overall enlarging of free trade zones through multilateral mega-FTA participation may contribute significantly to the macroeconomic soundness and stability of Korea, even when global trade protectionism prevails. Under RCEP and CPTPP trade regimes, Korea's GDP may increase even when the global trade environment deteriorates as trade wars occur and intensify between the US and China, or between the US and EU. It is also estimated that RCEP participation increases Korea's GDP, welfare (measured in equivalent variation), and total trade by 1.12%, $1.09 billion, and 2.54%, respectively, while CPTPP participation increases them by 0.19%, $0.92 billion, and 0.13%, respectively. Originality/value - Existing studies usually focus on the direct impacts of mega-FTA participation on macroeconomic variables such as GDP, welfare, and trade, and do not consider the possible buffer effects of a mega-FTA when the global trade environment worsens. In this paper, we analyze and quantify not only the direct impacts of RCEP and CPTPP on the main macroeconomic variables but also the possible buffer effects of the RCEP and CPTPP in the cases of the US-China and US-EU trade wars.