• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.1
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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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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.66-86
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper describes the use of trade preferences under the EU-Korea free trade agreement (FTA) and empirically examines potential reasons for the less than full use, using data on daily EU imports from Korea at the product level. Design/methodology - We employ a probit model to analyse the relationship between the use of trade preferences on the one hand and variables such as potential duty savings, rules of origin and the characteristics of the good traded (intermediate input or final product) on the other. Findings - The paper finds that EU imports from Korea make good use of trade preferences with an overall preference utilisation rate of close to 90% in 2016, which is up from about 80% in 2012. It further shows that potential duty savings influence preference utilisation positively and that more than one quarter of the observations in our sample made use of preferences under EU-Korea FTA in 2012, despite duty savings standing at €10 or less. Originality/value - The finding that a non-negligible share of observations use preferences even when the duty savings are low has not yet figured in the literature. We further show how preference utilisation rates differ by importing EU Member State and by section of the Harmonised System and estimate the marginal impact of an increase in potential duty savings on the preference utilisation rate by broad product group, which is novel.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.47-66
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• 2021

Despite the dominance of the USD as a vehicle currency in non-US trade, most studies on the exchange rate-trade balance relationship ignore its importance. Some recent J-curve papers have proved that incorporating the role of USD as vehicle currency as a crucial determinant of trade balance can well reflect the reality of global trade and provide more detailed findings. Motivated by this new approach and by the fact that USD is substantially used in the trade between China and the EU and the UK, this paper scrutinizes how the vehicle currency USD and the bilateral exchange rates asymmetrically affect China's trade balance with each EU country and the UK. The results of NARDL estimation indicate that the USD models outperform the bilateral exchange rate (BER) models in terms of detecting significant long-run and short-run coefficients, which confirms the usefulness of the new approach. Also, this paper finds that the USD/CNY exchange rate cannot be neglected in China's trade with the EU and the UK, which can supplement China's policies on international trade and foreign exchange management.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.175-230
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• 2016

The controversies that have surrounded the negotiation of both the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have underlined the difficulties arising out from the adoption of a truly common EU investment policy. Non-governmental organizations have called into question transparency and legitimacy of international investment arbitration during the negotiations. The article presents a reflection about current developments of the EU investment policy addressing, in particular, the criticisms towards the whole investor-to-State system and the EU's efforts in developing a "tailor-made" investment agreement and Investor-to-State Dispute resolution system. Along these lines, the article critically assesses the recently announced proposal for the establishment of an 'Investment Court System' put forward by the EU during the TTIP negotiations.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.135-156
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• 2009

The two waves of EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007, have been milestones of European integration. While research has been conducted into the impact of these events on both the European and the global economies,1 there have been few attempts to assess the effects of EU enlargement and the introduction of the euro on countries such as Russia, which neighbour the EU but currently have no perspective of accession. This paper aims to provide an assessment of the effects that EU enlargement and the introduction of the euro have had on Russia, the largest country neighbouring the EU. In particular, it focuses on trade and investment links between the EU and Russia, as well as the use of the energy by Russian residents and authorities. Economic links between Russia and the EU are found to have strengthened considerably in the areas of trade, investment and other financial flows in recent years. Strong growth, particularly in Russia, as well as the high price of oil and gas, Russia's major export items, has facilitated this expansion of trade and finance. Moreover, available data do not suggest that EU enlargement has had a negative impact on Russia in terms of trade or investment diversion. Thus, the strategic partnership between Russia and the EU has been increasingly underpinned by an expansion of cross-border economic activities. Thus, the paper contributes to two broad strands of literature on this subject, namely the impact of regional trade and economic arrangements on non-member countries and the international role of currencies.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.239-255
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• 2021

To review the theoretical background of regulatory approaches to cross-border transfer of personal data, this paper divides major digital trade participating countries into four types according to the OECD - non-regulatory, post-intervention, pre-supervision, and national control. It then analyzes the US, Japan, the EU, and China respectively that belong to each type. South Korea, which is currently about to pass the amendment by the National Assembly, has identified that it is in the middle of post-intervention and pre-supervision, and needs to evolve into pre-supervision norms like the EU while it has to participate more actively in the process of establishing international digital trade rules. Korea first needs to sign digital trade agreements and promote mutual certification projects more actively from the standpoint of a medium-sized open country with growing digital companies and digitally-open consumers. Second, the government should fully consider the interests of not only companies but also various trade stakeholders including domestic consumers, when drafting and implementing trade policies. To this end, 'a single window approach' is needed not only at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, but also at the level of the entire government which require an integrated form of digital trade policy governance.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.59-65
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• 2014

Purpose - The competitiveness of logistics in the 21st century rests on ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of its local hub. While considering entry into a niche market in local logistics, it is pertinent to note that Budapest is emerging as a hub in EU enlargement in Eastern Europe. Big, small, and medium-sized businesses in Korea entered Hungary in the early 1990s since then, there has been a significant increase in Korean presence, of approximately 130 times. This study aimed to identify the key distribution issues that have emerged in relation to Eastern Europe. Research design, data, and methodology - This study indicates that 33 major Korean companies were located in Hungary, which serves as an out post to enter the European marketplace. However, Korea's exports to Hungary have declined (-32.0% in 2012) because of a loss of competitiveness against multinational corporations, due to factors such as the rise in current local distribution costs and wages. Hungary, on the other hand, through diversification and expansion of foreign trade with the non-EU markets, including Korea, is increasing its exports. Strategies of emerging countries are compared and reviewed in this study, by examining the vicissitudes of Hungary's distribution methods. Results - There are issues regarding Hungary's innovative ability. Hungary has a history of low wages and high skilled labor. However, the outflow of high-quality human resources for high-wages has become more extensive, and this underlines concerns that the CEE's trade hub is moving to neighboring countries. After the European financial crisis in 2010, the Hungarian economy is now developing, because of the IMF's measures, and it is being transformed into a trade surplus nation, while regaining distribution volumes rapidly. However, if there is continued lack of investment, the supply chain is weakened and exports decline amidst competition with TNCs or with China's distribution networks. Conclusions - It is necessary to create a new logistics approach for increasing trade between Korea and Hungary. First, Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should build trust by working with advanced Hungarian talent, and they should expand into state-of-the-art fields instead of being confined to traditional sectors. Second, this study focuses on limiting and lowering their high expectations for success according to foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and the role in the CEE distribution hub Korea should try to strengthen the distribution hub with its centralized population, using better, more highly educated human resources, thereby sustaining more innovative ability. Further, the positive effects of these measures are manifested in enhanced business on both sides of Hungary, namely, the EU and non-EU nations such as Turkey and emerging markets around Europe, and a better engagement in the core placement of culture and industry. For this, Korea can contribute to, and benefit from, a Hungarian logistics center, for adopting the high-tech cluster systems and commercializing distribution technology such as RFID·USN.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.191-225
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• 2014

Most of all, this paper analyzes the current situation of EU(European Union) and ascertain EU's economic condition in terms of tariff lines and non-tariff barriers. and the purpose of this article is to find out the problems of EU's tariff lines and non-tariff barriers. Next, We suggest some future direction of export promotion from Korea to EU more largely for our companies. First, this paper describes the characteristics and outline of EU. The EU is a politico-economic union of 28 member states that are primarily located in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community(ECSC) and the European Economic Community(EEC), formed by the Inner Six countries in 1951 and 1958, respectively. After that, The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993. The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009. There are a combined population of over 500 million inhabitants and generated a nominal gross domestic product(GDP) of 16.692 trillion US dollars in EU. The results are as follows ; First of all, In terms of tariff lines and customs duties, Our companies have to know precisely EU's real tariff lines and other customs duties, and such as value added tax and exercise tax, corporate tax regulated by EU commission and EU's 28 members. second, our companies have to confirm EU's non-tariff barriers. such as RoHS, WEEE, REACH. These non-tariff barriers could be hindrances or obstacles to trade with foreign companies in other countries. We perceive all companies exporting to EU are related with these Technical Barriers to Trade irrespective of their nationality. So, Our companies fulfill the requirements of EU Commission concerning safety, health, environment etc. Also, Our companies choose market-driven strategy to export more largely than before in the field of marketing and logistics.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.13
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• pp.735-765
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• 2000

The paper aims to introduce and to discuss seafood import systems in terms of tariff and Non-Tariff Measurements which have been changed by the establishment of WTO. The paper can be used as materials for seafood trade policy making. The Non-Tariff Measurements for seafood import control in Japan are explored as follows; Import Quota, Import License, Pre-identification, Standard system, Customs Clearance Procedure, Import Port Nomination, Import Channel, Unification. The paper is composed of six chapters. Chapter 1 shows the current situation of seafood trade of major countries and background of the research. Chapter 2 deals with fisheries negotiations in the Uruguay Round, their impacts and major issues of tariffs and Non-Tariff Measurements in seafood trade. Chapter 3 analyzes seafood import of Japan, which is the core nation in the seafood trade of Northeast Asian Region, by item and the structure and characteristics of Japanese seafood import tariff including Non-Tariff Measurements. Chapter 4 and chapter 5 tackle seafood import management system of EU and USA respectively. Chapter 6 summarizes the issues of seafood import by focusing on Japan which is the biggest import market of Korean seafood.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.648-655
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• 2016

As the FTAs' implementations are accelerated, an Ex-post assessment, such as an analysis of the tariff schedule and agricultural trade has been emerging as an important national issue for an agricultural sector Korea-EU FTA, which was to be implemented in the five years from July 2016 as one of the giant FTA. The purpose of this study was to determine the demand of an ex-post assessment on agricultural sector as a trade negotiation procedural law. In addition, by providing policy direction for the agricultural policy part requiring amendments and supplements through ex-post assessment, the conflicting arguments between agricultural and non-agricultural sector can be evaluated more objectively. The current evaluation method on the economic impact ex-post assessment of a FTA is generally compared using the change in trade balance before and after the time of FTA implementation. On the other hand, this comparison cannot be said to be the pure FTA effects and objective, tightening economic impact assessment of the FTA in all combined situations, such as the effects of exchange rates and international macroeconomic changes and climate change & occurrence of pests. Over the last 4 years, however, Korea-EU FTA's total accumulated agricultural GDP loss was measured to be 2,178 billion by these research attempts with dynamic analysis as ex-post assessment methodology. The greatest impact was mainly livestock and pork followed by cereals and vegetables. In addition, this research is expected to contribute to policy evaluations in the future.