• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.253-269
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• 2019

This study examines the utilization effect of FTA on the sales and profit of the secondary auto-part suppliers in two aspects: 1) firm-level survey on the utilization of FTA and 2) statistical inference on the FTA effects on their sales and profit. We use the GLS statistical technique, panel and survey data of 130 secondary auto-part suppliers in the Daegu and Kyungpook area in 2007-2016. The evidence shows that the secondary auto-part suppliers struggle to prepare documents for the FTA certificates of origin due to their small firm size, although they utilize the FTA at the relatively high rate of 92 percent. Statistical evidence shows that an increase in the export of the first vender significantly affects the sale of the secondary auto-part vendors, but not their profit. The low profit and high managing cost of utilizing the FTA deteriorate the utilization effect of the FTA of the secondary auto-part vendors, which is a key factor in a global supply chain and for the competitiveness of the automobile industry. Government policies are required for the secondary auto-part suppliers to utilize the FTA more effectively and share the benefits of tariff reduction with first auto-part vendors under FTA transaction.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.3-18
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• 2017

International legal reviews on ISD, a procedure for resolving disputes under the Korea-US FTA, are examined from the perspective of law. If the ISD system does not exist, even if the investor suffers damage due to the illegal act of the host country, he or she must file a lawsuit through the court of the host country, which is unreasonable from the investor's point of view and makes it difficult to guarantee fairness and transparency. Some of the Koreans pointed out that there are some problems with the KORUS FTA dispute settlement regulations, and that the United States federal courts are taking a friendly attitude to the decisions made by the US Customs in determining the dispute by the KORUS FTA Agreement and the US Customs Act. In cases where the State does not violate international law but results in harmful consequences, the responsibility of one country is borne by the treaty. Foreign investment always comes with many challenges and risks. Therefore, the ISD system is a fair and universal arbitration system, which is considered to be a necessary system even for protecting the Korean companies investing abroad. In the investment treaty, compensation for the nationalization of foreign property and reimbursement under the laws of the host country were dissatisfied with foreign investors. In particular, some Koreans have pointed out that there are some problems in the KORUS FTA dispute resolution regulations and there is a need for further discussion and research. Based on the experiences and wisdoms gained in the course of Korea-US FTA negotiations, the dispute arbitration mechanism is urgently needed to reduce the possibility of disputes and to make amicable directions.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.109-130
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• 2018

The cumulative standard is one of the criteria determining the origin of imported goods and is a provision that allows non-origin materials to be treated as origin goods when satisfying certain conditions. Regarding the Korea-Canada FTA, new cumulative standards were applied concerning cross accumulation of automobile products. It would benefit U.S. originating intermediate goods of HS code chapter 84, 85, 87, and 94 obtained into HS code heading from 8701 into 8706. We examine the effectiveness of crossover cumulative standards through the change in the import values of 84, 85, 87, 94, which are target items for cross cumulation. Only items designated for automobile parts were selected and analyzed. From the estimation results, significant changes appeared in 20 of the 35 items. It was found that the import amount increased significantly as of January 2015 or the rate of change in trend increases more than before. In addition, the estimation results show that Korean auto companies utilizing the cumulative standards through increased imports of auto parts form the U.S.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.21-41
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• 2022

The effect of change in exchange rates on an economy is very important, especially, to a small open economy like South Korea. I explore whether Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have positive influences on exchange rate-pass through import price of import market for fishery products in South Korea. Competition among FTA partners is enhanced after FTAs are effective. I expect that the extent to which are exchange rate pass-through (hereafter, ERPT) into import price of fishery products (in terms of Korea currency) would be reduced since the import market for fishery products in South Korea is an oligopolistic market. Specifically, I investigate two research questions with six South Korea's FTA partners-Norway, Thailand, Peru, U.S., China and Vietnam. First, whether the extent to which are exchange rate pass-through into import price of fishery products from six FTA partners would decrase in the post-FTA era; seconds, the size of reduction has a negative relation with the size of their market share in the import market for fishery products in South Korea if it decreases. The empirical results indicate that the degree of ERPT into import price from other FTA partners than Norway has been reduced after FTA, statistically and significantly; however, I do not find the evidence that the size of reduction is related to their market share. The findings in this study imply that FTAs have negative effects on producers' economic welfare in South Korea's fishery industry by reducing the extent to which are exchange rate pass-through as well as reducing tariff barriers.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.223-238
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• 2020

In the environment of protectionism and bilateral trade agreements, Korea has promoted the conclusion of FTAs for its export-oriented trading policy, and 16 FTAs have entered into force at present. The main goal of this paper is to introduce the ISI system and its benefits and to extend the preferential rule of origin regime by using the Integrated Sourcing Initiative in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. The ISI illustrates with impressive clarity the fact that it considered as a tool of expanding the geographic limit of states and maximizing the global sourcing strategy of multinational corporations, allowing the developing countries to gain access to the market of developed ones that avoid the complexity and costs of many rules of origin regimes. This paper utilizes the literature research and analyzes a case study of FTAs which have adopted the ISI system. In conclusion, it presents several implications of additional measures to satisfy rules of origin in Korea's existing FTAs relating to the global supply chain strategy.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.978-987
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• 2015

This study investigates the awareness levels of Korean textile companies and develops appropriate response plans for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. The study also explores practical and realistic directions that the Korean textile industry must initiate. A qualitative study was conducted on 10 individuals for a more in-depth and demonstrative understanding that provide a better awareness on the responses of the textile industry towards the Korea-US FTA. The results of this study are as follows. First, the effect of the Korea-US FTA on the textile industry was insignificant. Second, industry members determined that fabric sectors and specialized fabrics (such as industrial materials and finished clothing products) could realize benefits through the Korea-US FTA. Third, industry members emphasize that the current focus is on FTAs by countries that have solidified their positions as manufacturing and sewing bases for the US and Europe (such as Southeast Asia) and not the Korea-US FTA. Based on results acquired through this study, the response measures to enter the U.S. market are as follows. First, the industry must develop high-performance and high value-adding direct export products suited to the needs of the US market in order to realize the benefits of the Korea-US FTA. Second, the industry and government must cooperate to actively host and participate in overseas trade shows that can actively open sales channels within the US. Third, the self-sustainability of textile companies must be cultivated through continuous and focused government training.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.77
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• pp.239-258
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine the legal standards of agreements on the origin of liability and the relevant laws in Korea, to suggest implications for custom authorities and traders wishing to benefit from preferential tariff via FTA, citing the excluded cases of related FTA preferences (court cases and administrative judgments). In order to examine the provisions related to supporting evidence of the origin of liability in FTA, we examined FTAs agreed between Korea and EU, EFTA, ASEAN, U.S., and India relevant to FTA Special Customs Act, court cases and administrative judgements. If verifying the origin to protect the fair trade order impedes to promote utilizing FTA, solutions will need to be suggested. If FTA preference is exempted due to verifying the origin by the import customs authorities, the importer shall pay the income tax calculated in accordance with the general tax rate. This is because the certificate of origin confirmed during verification process is different from the actual origin. In most agreements, the exporter (the producer) shall issue the certificate of origin and since the importer has no other option than obtaining the certificate of origin from the exporter, it may face consequences such as declined credibility from the custom authorities in addition to being disqualified for FTA preferential, if the certificate of origin received from the exporter has flaws. On the other hand, the exporter cannot help but being punished by the customs authorities due to issuing defective origin certificates, but it doesn't have conventionary liabilities for damages incurred to the importer. As a result, importers are forced to pursue legal proceedings to claim damages to exporters or to give up FTA preference. As FTA is increasingly utilized, the number and amount of origin verification in Korea has continuously been increasing while administrative judgements indicates other FTA exporters doesn't seem to gain any support in utilizing FTA like Korea does. It has been 8 years since full-scale supports in FTA launched and now is the time to introduce more efficient and intensive FTA support system In this regard, it is desirable to conduct comprehensive verification on export Next, an institutions that assures FTA-based exports should be established in order to compensate the importer's damages that may occur from disqualified certificate of origin issued by the exporter.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.905-916
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to analyze factors affecting US beef consumption intention in the future, to identify the causes of US beef import growth and to derive implications and strategies for domestic beef producers. Since the KORUS FTA was signed in 2012, US beef imports in 2017 totaled 379,064 tons, an annual increase of 3.5 percent. US beef imports have been steadily increasing due to cuts in FTA tariffs and changes in consumer preferences. The data used in this study utilized a sample of 3,290 grocery purchasers from the Korea Rural Economic Institute's 2016 Food Consumption Behavior Survey. The analytical method used the Ordered Logit Model to analyze what factors influence a consumer's subjective evaluation. As a result, the major factors affecting US beef consumption intention in the future are price, taste and safety. In particular, it has to do with the recent surge in U.S. imports of good-tasting chilled meat. Because chilled meat does not differentiate the market from Hanwoo beef produced in Korea, it is necessary to have differentiated taste and low price through cost reduction. By age and family group, people aged 30 - 40 years and single-person households are the main consumption group. As a result of this study, it is necessary to establish marketing strategies for producers such as rational pricing, safety, taste promotion, and small-scale sales to extend the demand for Hanwoo beef in the younger generation to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic beef market.

• 중국학논총
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• no.72
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• pp.101-122
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• 2021

Over the past 20 years, labor standards have been widely used in free trade agreements. The U.S., the European Union and China have all aggressively signed free trade agreements with their trading partners, developing different styles on labor standards. According to the study, the implementation of the KOREa-EU FREE trade agreement has been hampered by ongoing disputes over the terms of the FREE trade agreement and the ILO since the korea-EU free trade agreement was signed. Because in order to break this deadlock, relevant scholars have done a lot of research, but mainly focused on the economic and trade field. Therefore, this paper for the first time systematically studies the substantive focus of disputes over FTA and ILO clauses, and carefully analyzes the domestic law amended by South Korea, and provides suggestions and inspirations for China by drawing lessons from the revision model of South Korea's domestic law. This is from a newperspective: the essence of the korea-EU FTA and ILO disputes is the conflict between international law and domestic law, and the conflict between free trade agreements and human rights protection. It holds that the essence of disputes should be sorted out from the perspective of legal principles and human rights protection, and the free trade and human rights protection should be actively coordinated. In order to make China more actively integrate into the international economy, China should adopt a positive attitude to revise and perfect its own laws, so as to realize the purpose of common development of international trade and human rights protection.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.287-307
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• 2013

Numerous discussions on the KORUS FTA has been centered around issues on trade in goods, services, or dispute settlement mechanisms. On the other hand, little attention has been given to Chpater 21 of the KORUS FTA on transparency, especially Article 21.6 which states about anti-corruption. Article 21.6 and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act shares the common purpose to prevent corruptive business practice, and they show similarities in many aspects. The FCPA enforcement has dramatically increased over the past ten years by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities Exchange Commission stretching its jurisdiction to foreign nationals and companies. Korean business professionals and corporations are exposed to both Article 21.6 and the FCPA on corruption issues. Thus, it is imperative to understand Article 21.6 to be equipped with anti-corruption compliance programs. This paper examines the FCPA and Article 21.6 through comparative analysis and proposes appropriate measures for Korea to take.