• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.367-383
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• 2024

Purpose - This study theoretically analyzes how the level of political protection (tariff rate) is determined by political processes with conflicting interests and how it changes according to changes in global prices. Design/methodology/approach - For the purpose of the paper, against the backdrop of the apple market, which has recently become a major issue in our society due to the soaring price, we construct a mathematical model that assumes two pressure groups claiming pro-tariff and anti-tariff on the import of apples. Unlike data-based empirical studies, theoretical study has the advantage of generalization to expand related discussions and can derive policy implications from a new perspective. Findings - The analysis shows us that the equilibrium political tariff could rise or fall depending on the degree of risk aversion of the lobbyists. However, what has been clearly shown in our analysis is that domestic apple prices will fluctuate in the same direction as global prices. In other words, it is clear that even though there is a lobby for protection trade, when global prices fall, domestic prices also fall. This fact implies that apple-producing farms can decline even if tariffs on apples increase. Research implications or Originality - As long as the equilibrium political tariff rates are determined through competitive lobbying by interest groups, productive resource use is wasted from the perspective of society as a whole. Due to this waste, it can be inferred that the tariff rate determined endogenously by lobbying activities can lead to loss of welfare compared to the case of the tariff rate level, which is highly determined by the government's unilateral decision.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.1-4
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• 2020

Purpose: This research, based on the tariff reduction table negotiated by South Korea and China free trade area, the specific tariffs of the two countries in the implementation of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement are calculated, and the global equilibrium model, the global trade analysis project (GTAP) model, is used to simulate and analyze the impact of the Korea-China free trade area on the output and trade of the two countries. Research design, data and methodology: The study conducted a survey on 2018 year GTAP 9.0data. After empirically analyzing the data, we believe that the Major industry in Korea and China will maintain its growth momentum. Results: This study shows that under the assumption that the average tariff of China and South Korea at the beginning of FTA was reduced to 20%, two scenarios were simulated. Two scenarios are simulated under the assumption that the average tariff of China and South Korea FTA will be reduced to 10%. Conclusions: This paper assumes that the average tariff of China-Korea FTA is set at 20%, 10% and zero tariff respectively in the early, middle and long term of the FTA construction. It considers the impact of China-Japan-Korea FTA on China- Korea FTA.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Industrial Systems Conference
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• 1999.12a
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• pp.623-637
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• 1999

This study firstly aims to review the discussions among major nations and international organizations on removal of tariff wall in EC. Secondly, it is analyzed how the trend of tariff reduction of removal will affect an individual economy in a partial balance analysis model on an assumed small-size economy. In closing, political implication for removal of tariffs in EC will be presented. The study concluded that tariff removal on Internet EC has both positive and negative effects on the importing economy. It can improve the efficiency in utilization of economic resources by the importing economy in the long term while cut the financial revenue and aggravate the trade balance of importing country. It is inferred from such a conclusion that tariff removal can lead to trade imbalance between the Information haves and the have-nots.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2011

As is the case in Korea, the expansion of renewable energy dissemination is an essential matter in Ukraine when considering its energy consumption and dependence on energy import. While Korea has set about promoting the new and renewable energy industry on the back of the national policy on green growth, Ukraine expects a virtuous circle of renewable energy industry with green tariffs and the attraction of foreign capital in association with carbon emission trade. Utilizing its well-developed heavy industrial sector including the shipbuilding and automobile industries, Korea expects wind turbine manufacturing to become one of its next-generation growth engines. Ukraine is also trying to enter the wind turbine system or parts manufacturing industry based on its automobile industry and advanced aerospace technology. Although the Crimean region in Ukraine seems to have excellent wind resources, and thus shows great potential as a location for wind farm development, political instability has been a major obstacle to the attraction of foreign capital, leading to delayed investment.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.20-20
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• 2011

The purpose of this research aims to evaluate the emergence of new business mode in the Chinese water market since the mid-2000s - Transfer-Operate-Transfer(TOT) Projects. The study pays special attention to the case of the Hefei Wangxiaoying Wastewater Treatment TOT Project, which was awarded to the consortium of Berlin Water International and its Chinese partner in late 2004. The consortium secured an exclusive operating right for 23 years on the basis of a TOT scheme and would take responsibility of all the profits and losses in the operation of the plant. The total investment for the transfer amounted to RMB 491 million(US$70 million). The price was more than 288% of the original value, RMB 170 million (US$24 million). The project can be regarded as a successful case because of the following three causes. First, the Hefei government followed a series of standardized procedures in the international bidding, which ignited best-performed international players' competition for the project. Second, the project will bring in cutting-edge operation skills and management know-how. Third, the government succeeded in raising public asset values, and thanks to this, the government is able to consider other similar projects not only in the water sector but also other sectors in public utility services. Nevertheless, Berlin Water's point of view, there are several challenges. First, the company took a risk to pay such a large amount of cash to the Hefei government. Although such premium can be recouped in the operation period of 23 years, whether or not the company would be able to recover the initial investment and realize profits is in question due to an uncertainty of socio-political circumstances in China. Second, Berlin Water should expect a steep rise of water tariffs over the contract period in order to get the investment back. Water pricing is still a sensible matter to Chinese authorities, and therefore, it is uncertain if such rise of water tariffs would be possible. Third, the TOT mode leads to creation of a large amount of cash to government officials, which might have caused corruption between those who are involved in TOT deals. Then, the final contract fee would soar, which often results in the burden of normal customers. As discussed, the TOT mode has drawn much attention of foreign investors as a new alternative to enter into the Chinese water market. But it is important to note that foreign investors should be aware of possible risks in water TOT projects, which reflects some features of the Chinese political economy landscape and social norms. The Hefei case indicates that benefits can overshadow risks in TOT projects, which will continue to attract foreign investors that are dedicated to establishing their strongholds in the Chinese water market.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.111-141
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• 2018

By the middle of 2018 there are signs of China's entry into a new period of development, characterized by a change in the old model: "market reforms-inner-party democratization - moderate foreign policy" to another: "market reforms - Xi Jinping personality cult - offensive foreign policy." This model contains the risks of arising of the contradiction between economic freedom and political-ideological rigidity which can lead to destabilization of the political life. However, in the current positive economic dynamics, these risks may come out, rather, in the medium and long term. Today, the political situation in China remains stable - despite growing dissatisfaction in scientific expert and educational circles due to increased control over the intellectual sphere by the authorities. The need for a new redistribution of power between central and provincial authorities could potentially disrupt political stability in the medium term, but, at the moment, is not a critical negative factor. The economic situation is positive-stable. Forecasts indicate a possible increase in China's GDP in 2018 at 6.5%. At the same time, there are negative expectations in connection with the Sino-US and potentially Sino-European "trade war". In the Chinese foreign policy, as a response to Western pressure, China increasingly uses the Russian direction of its diplomacy in the expanded version of Russia + SCO. The nuance here is seen in China's adjusted approach to the SCO: first of all, not as a mechanism for cooperation with Russia, but as an organization that allows using Russia's potential for pressure on the US in the Sino-US strategic rivalry. In the second half of 2018, the Chinese economy will continue to develop steadily, albeit with unresolved traditional problems (debts of provinces and state-owned enterprises, ineffective state sector, risks on the financial and real estate market). In politics, discontent with the cult of Xi will accumulate, but without real threats to its power. Weakening in economic opposition between China and the United States is possible due to Beijing's search for compromises on tariffs, intellectual property, trade deficit. To find such trade-offs, Xi will use the so-called. "Personal diplomacy" of direct contacts with Trump.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.2 s.113
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• pp.195-211
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• 2006

During the 1986-1994 Uruguay Round negotiations under the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (later World Trade Organization), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was adopted by participating countries. TRIPS has not only allowed intellectual property to be introduced into international trade arenas, but also extended the scope of protection to biodiversity such as plant genetic material, arguing that intellectual property rights (IPRs) would help conserve biodiversity. In this paper, I aim to deconstruct the global IPRs regimes over biodiversity by adopting geographers' sensitivity to place and scale as an analytical window. By investigating how all the issues regarding IPRs over biodiversity that are raised by diverse disciplines, such as environmental ethics, environmental economics and political economy approach, are scale-related, I demonstrate how biodiversity IPRs, and its introduction into international trade agreements, though separate issues with no inevitable relationship to one another, have been put together for the construction of global IPRs regimes. I argue that the notion on the construction of scale (i.e., rhetorical and discursive construct of globalization) can contribute to revealing how fragile global environmental conservation regimes are.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.