• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.27-35
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• 2013

There has been a adverse balance between Korea and U.S. in defense trade. This paper investigates the current status of the defense trade imbalance in terms of numerical values, and also analyzes the institutionalized barriers to Korea defense exporters imposed by laws and regulations. It is found that the amount of Korea defense import is several tenfold that of the export to U.S. in 2011. The barriers are analyzed to be the american laws and regulations. The buy american act is applied to the U.S government procurements and the Berry amendment is applied to the defense procurements. These two laws has been implemented by the defense federal acquisition regulation which allows U.S. Dept. of Defense to buy only american products. To overcome the barriers, Korea ought to sign a defense MOU with U.S., so that the buy american act and the Berry amendment can be waived.