• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.245-255
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• 2024

This study will look at various implications of China's resumption of trade with Korea, such as trade restructuring, changes in trade policies and the impact on corporate competitiveness, and how the two countries resolved trade disputes. We will evaluate the evolution of trade between China and Korea from a historical and economic perspective, analyze how policy changes have shaped corporate strategies, and discuss how these changes have affected both countries' positions in the global economy. Through this study, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of regional economic cooperation and global economic governance and insight into future policy decisions.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.3
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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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• v.1
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• pp.471-475
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• 2006

For years, Korea, China and Japan have been continuously increasing intra-trade. In addition, by concluding FTA (Free Trade Agreement) among Korea, Japan and China, the trade capacity will be increased. In this way, the increasing trade capacity will induce to change north-east Asian economy. This paper researches which method is more economical and efficient in the aspect of the transportation time and distance, after comparing the existing marine transportation network with new intermodal transportation network considering TKR.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.311-329
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• 2019

Since China's opening to international trade, the rapid growth of the country's export sector has been coupled by an intensification of migratory outflows of ethnic Chinese. The literature has already stressed the beneficial role of migration in enhancing bilateral trade. The present paper applies a gravity model in order to capture the impact of migration on Chinese exports for a relatively long period of time (1995-2017) where significant developments take place. We estimated four regressions, each of them confirming the positive network effects of migration for boosting export growth. Apart from the main finding, it appears that the role of institutional and geographical proximity can prove to be complementary for trade enhancement. The results finally suggest mixed effects due to the countries' import openness, indicating that China's free trade agreements acts as a substitute for smoothing trade competition from third countries.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.233-272
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• 2021

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, signed in November 2020, comes shortly after the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) entered into force and the US-China Trade War escalated. We use a computable general equilibrium model to assess the long-term effects of these three developments on income, trade, economic structure, factor returns and employment across the world, and especially in Asia-Pacific countries. The results suggest that RCEP could generate income gains that will be almost twice as large as those of the CPTPP, and that the two agreements together will largely offset the substantial negative effects of the US-China Trade War for the world as a whole. All three policy developments, but especially RCEP, will deepen East Asian production networks and will raise productivity and increase wages and employment in much of East Asia. At the sectoral level, regional trade in non-durable and durable manufactures will experience the most growth.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.237-252
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• 2020

This paper characterizes the optimal reciprocal trade policy in the environment of Melitz (2003) with firm productivity heterogeneity. In particular, without making parametric assumptions on firm productivity distribution, this paper derives the optimal degree of reciprocal tariff reductions that maximize the world welfare. A reciprocal import subsidy raises the industry productivity, lowering aggregate price; a reciprocal import tariff helps correct the markup distortion, increasing nominal income. With all the conflicting effects of import tariffs on welfare considered, the optimal degree of reciprocity in multilateral tariff reduction is shown to be free trade.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper aims at analyzing the functions and effectiveness of the cooperation agenda in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), focusing on the cases of Asian countries. This paper estimates the contribution of this agenda to the sustainable development in Asia by providing the 'side payment' of the economic integration that encourages foreign investment and change in global value chains (GVC). Design/methodology - This study analyzes the functions of the cooperation chapter in FTAs by applying the cooperative game theory and reviewing the structures of the related FTAs. Also, as an empirical study, the existing FTA provisions and related development assistant programs in Asia are reviewed in this paper, especially focusing on the FTAs signed by Korea. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: The drawback of the economic integration, which would be the imbalanced economic benefit, can be redressed by the cooperation chapter in FTAs functioning as a 'side payment'. Indeed, as the examples of Korean FTAs show, more foreign investment and the GVC expansion in Asian countries have been encouraged thanks to the implementation of the cooperation chapters. Originality/value - This paper attempts to find how a legally binding agreement would influence the cooperation agenda in Asia which has never been analyzed despite the increasing number of so-called 'cooperation' chapters in the FTAs.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.39-59
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• 2011

Information Technology (IT) has been working as an engine of growth in Korea since early 1990's. For the next leap of Korean economy and to overcome worldwide financial crisis, Korea's IT industry needs to find a new breakthrough. In this viewpoint, we tried to empirically analyze the impact of Korea's IT trade on domestic industry. Since Korean government is trying to set up a few free trade agreements (FTA) with major trade partners, more accurate understanding of the impact of FTA is required to find the correct way to promote Korea's IT industry. We first looked at the current status of Korea's IT trade with major partners such as the US, Japan, and China to understand the competitiveness of Korea's IT industry. Having done this, we measured the impact of IT trade on domestic industry using Granger causality test. The results showed that the positive impact of trade is bigger on IT industry than on whole industry. Also, the impact of import turned out to be bigger than that of export. Among the major trade partner countries, the US’s and China's impacts are bigger than Japan's impact. Another notable thing is that IT product import from the US has especially big impact on domestic IT industry. Our findings may have certain implications to the FTA related policy.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.167-176
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• 2021

Incheon Port urgently requires designation of a free trade zone to pursue development linked with the port hinterland while promoting continuous growth of the port. This study aims to evaluate the optimal location and derive policy implications for the designation of a free trade zone and analyzed factors property divided by groups. This study used the Consistent Fuzzy Preference Relation (CFPR) analysis technique to derive a practical construction direction by quantifying and evaluating linguistic measures. As a result, the Incheon New Port hinterland showed the highest location competitiveness among the four candidate areas of Incheon New Port hinterland, Aam Logistics Complex 2, North Port hinterland, and Gyeongin Port hinterland. Among the eight evaluation factors consisting of qualitative and quantitative factors, the Incheon New Port hinterland ranked no. 1 in all the four qualitative factors and one quantitative factor and received the highest total score. Also, Group 1 presented 'possibility to attract tenant companies' as first. Group 2 was 'complex size' and Group 3 was also 'possibility to attract tenant companies'. This study has the implication for suggesting the factors and evaluation structure of Free Trade Zone. Future research requires detailed empirical studies, such as expanding the subject of study or selecting factors that reflect the interests of each group.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.485-494
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• 2016

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the impact and determinants of bilateral Free Trade Agreements on international total bulk shipment trade volume at the port of Korea using the Panel Gravity Model. The model estimates the aggregated panel data of exports and imports (excluding transshipment) as a dependent variable during the period from 1996 to 2015. GDP, GDP per capita, distances between bilateral countries, and FTA dummies are included as independent variables. And the economic integration of FTAs including ASEAN+3 and NAFTA3 countries were used as dummy variables. Study results show that GDP and GDP per capita have positive impacts on bulk shipment trade volume at the port of Korea. In addition, Korea's bilateral FTAs with Singapore, India and the United States have positive effects on total bulk trade volume in Korea. This is the so called trade creation effect. On the other hand, ASEAN+3 and NAFTA have negative effects on the total bulk trade. This is the so called trade diversion effect. Also, the distance between Korea and its trade partners has a negative impact. These findings provide insights for: further academic research, site operators who work in related trade and maritime sectors, and policy makers engaged in port and maritime operations. The results can be used to develop strategies for maximizing bulk port throughput.