• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.447-467
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• 2016

The RTAs with trade facilitation provisions have been expected to generate a larger net trade-creating effect and complement the discriminatory feature of RTAs but have yet to be empirically proven. Recognizing the limitations of existing studies, we conducted a quantitative analysis on the effects of RTAs with and without trade facilitation provisions on both intra- and extra-bloc trade by using a modified gravity equation. We applied the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation with time varying exporter and importer fixed effect method to panel data consisting of 45,770 country pairs covering 170 countries for 2000-2010. We found that the trade facilitation provisions in existing RTAs are non-discriminatory by generating more intra- and extra-bloc trade in general. In particular, we found that the trade effects of RTAs in the APEC region are much stronger than the general case covering all RTAs in the world. In addition, as we control the trade effect of a country's trade facilitation, which is ranked by the World Bank's logistic performance index, RTAs consisting of trade facilitation provisions are discriminatory for trade in final goods and non-discriminatory for trade in intermediate goods. Overall, we endeavor to "explain," instead of "hypothesizing," why most of the recent RTAs contain trade facilitation provisions, especially in light of the deepening regional interdependence through trade in parts and components under global value chains and support the necessity of multilateralizing RTAs by implementing non-discriminatory trade facilitation provisions.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.68
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• pp.171-195
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• 2015

The large increase in RTAs since the late 1980's has challenged the foundations of the multilateral trading system, and thereby has become an axis in the GATT/WTOsystem.While RTAs can be seen to be contradictory to the overall aim of the WTO, they were allowed for in Article XXIV of GATT conditional to certain provision. The failure of compliance and subsequently enforcement of these provisions could be seen as a serious flaw of Article XXIV since the inception of GATT system. Many elements of GATT Article XXIV are not clear and thus lead to divergent interpretations of its disciplines. This considerable divergence in opinions arise from both ambiguities throughout the provisions under GATT Article XXIV. In this regard, both economic and legal work is required to keep up with constantly changing nature of the world trading system. Further, global efforts are required to resolve another teething issue of WTO's problematic institutional framework on GATT/WTO's oversight and surveillance of RTAs. and thereby strengthen the multilateral trading system. Needless to say, theGATT/WTOframework has been essential in paving the way for RTAs while ensuring a more multilateral and liberal trading system. Consequently, global efforts should be made to restructure the WTO for the renewed multilateral trade liberalization in the GATT/WTO.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.72
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• pp.139-160
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• 2016

Using the gravity model, this paper analyzes empirically how the world trade in goods is affected by regional trade agreements(RTAs) which have been spreading rapidly since the mid-1990s. This paper attempt to do the panel data analysis about 174 countries during the period of 1994-2008. These panel data include 157 RTAs. It is meaningful that this paper uses comprehensive data to analyze the net effect of regional trade agreements on the global trade volume. This provides a clue as to the answer to the stumbling block debate raised early in the regional trade agreement. Also, confirming how the participation of the WTO affected the trade volume among the member countries, the WTO-related dummy variables are additionally introduced to this gravity model. And as far as we know, the state system-related variables is first considered in this model. This variable reflects the social and cultural environments of countries as the proxy variable representing the sociocultural homogeneity. In all regressions, joining to the WTO and consistency of the state system have a positive effect on increasing the trade volumes between countries. According to the analysis of RTA trade effects, RTAs, on average, increase the volume of trade within the RTA region by 27%~37%, and decrease the volume of trade between the regional and the non-regional nation by 1.2%~3.4%.Therefore, the net effect of regional trade agreements on the promotion of global welfare is positive. For robustness check, we also introduce the interaction term of the dummy variable which reflects the RTA tightening and the continuous variable which reflects the distance effect. As a result, the RTAs alleviate the trade-decreasing effect which is caused by the distance between the countries.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.233-260
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• 2013

Regional Trade Agreements(RTAs) are a prominent feature of the multilateral trading system and have been an important trade policy tool for WTO Members. RTAs has been steadily increasing over the last ten years and this trend will be further strengthened by the many RTAs being proposed and those currently under negotiation. There has been a recent increase in the Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) making it necessary to determine the most effective method for taking advantage of anti-dumping measures between member countries of the RTA. Due to the complexity of anti-dumping laws and abuse of discretion by each nation, however, the basic goal of the RTA has not come to fruition. The results of this study found that the strengthening of anti-dumping measures in the RTA is desirable. A plan to use competition instead of anti-dumping measures must be implemented. For Korea, it will be necessary to develop the fundamentals for the globalization of competitive rules to keep pace with the continuous expansion of FTA.

• Journal of KIBIM
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are the leading cause of accidental death among children. RTA reduction is becoming an increasingly important social issue among children. Municipalities aim to resolve this issue by introducing "Smart Pedestrian Crosswalks" that help prevent traffic accidents near children's facilities. Nonetheless such facilities tend to be installed in relatively limited number of areas, such as the school zone. In order for budget allocation to be efficient and policy effects maximized, optimal location selection based on machine learning is needed. In this paper, we employ machine learning models to select the optimal locations for smart pedestrian crosswalks to reduce the RTAs of children. This study develops an optimal location index using variable importance measures. By using k-means clustering method, the authors classified the crosswalks into three types after the optimal location selection. This study has broadened the scope of research in relation to smart crosswalks and traffic safety. Also, the study serves as a unique contribution by integrating policy design decisions based on public and open data.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.171-194
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• 2020

Although there is a lot of literature on the effectiveness of regional trade agreements(RTAs), it is usually analyzed only using trade-related theories and data. However, this paper has a differentiation in that we examine the linkage between international trade and financial markets through the stock markets reactions when the trade agreements related news arrived. Specifically, using an event study, we look into the Korea-US free trade agreement(KORUS FTA) which is the most commercially significant FTA in almost two decades for both the countries. Korean stock market generally responded more sensitively to FTA news than the US stock market, especially in 'Auto & Parts', 'Electrical Equipment' and 'Chemicals' industries. And the investors' perception toward the effect of KORUS FTA on Korean industries changed from negative to positive as negotiations proceed. Korea has a comparative advantage in the production of labor-intensive goods relative to US, but the economies of scale hypothesis does not hold.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.117-137
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• 2012

The objective of this article is to examine the characteristic features of contemporary policy-led regionalism in Asia. It identifies the positive and negative features associated with the free trade agreements that have proliferated in Asia during the first decade of the $21^{st}$ century. There has been a marked transformation in Asia's regional architecture in a short span of a decade-and-a-half. The mode and conduct of multilateral trade has been significantly transformed during recent years and Asia could not possibly remain immune to this transformation. The importance of regionalism in multilateral trade has increased steadily. In addition, the trade-investment-services nexus has developed and grown increasingly important. As business firms now manufacture parts of their products across the border, bilateral trade agreements (BTAs), regional trade agreements (RTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) of the contemporary period need to take into account the new kind of trade barriers that have been created due to the changing mode of trade. The contemporary regional agreements need to be designed to facilitate the new modes of conducting business and trade. It was understood rather late in Asia that the 'WTO-Plus' FTAs are more functional and result-oriented than their predecessors.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.251-272
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• 2010

This study was done through Panel Gravity Model to analyze the trade pattern of Korean motor industry and empirical analysis was also performed on the effect of regional economies joining to the Korean trade is to draw out some implications. Compared with per capita pattern regarding the income levels of both the countries, the results indicated that trade of Korean motor industry followed GDP pattern in accordance with the overall market. The results of effect on regional economic integration to Korean motor industry reflected 179% and 198% increase in motor trade industry and motor parts trade, respectively. To expand the trade of Korean motor industry at the international competitiveness level, focus should be made on smaller, smarter and greener car with lesser impact on the environment. Hence, the present investigation suggested that government should not delay in retaining the core technology as well as private sector should also aggressively invest in the market.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.183-215
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• 2007

The purpose of this paper is to study of WTO regulations related FTA such as Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT) 1994 and General Agreement on Trade in Service(GATS). In this study, the First introduced FTA rules of WTO in the chapter 2. The WTO agreement includes the "General Agreement on Tariffs an Trade(GATT) 1994". This instrument, known as "GATT 1994", is based on upon the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade referred to as "GATT 1947". The Second analyzed the relations between FTA and Article XXIV of GATT 1994 in the chapter 3. The Article XXIV of GATT 1994 is an agreement between the distinctive members for liberalizing trade. The Article XXIV of GATT 1994 is consist of three parts such as customs unions, free-trade area, and interim agreements that WTO is referred to as "Regional Trade Agreement(RTA)". There is a difference between the customs unions and the free-trade area. In the customs unions rules, the members should have the same tarifficatio and the same trade provision against non-members, but in the free-trade are a rules, the member is not necessary to have the same tarifficatio and the same trade provision against non-members. But, the both rules have a liberalization of trade in a common as a revoking tariffs and the government regulations for interfering with trade. In this case, however, the both rules include an inconsistency ele ment under WTO rules such as Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment(MFN) and National Treatment on Internal Taxation and Regulation(NTITR). This study reviewed neither inconsistency nor consistency on the both rules with the RTA of WTO under Article XXIV of GATT 1994. The Third analyzed the relations between FTA and Article V of GATS under WTO in the chapter 4. The GATS is a rule of WTO for the growing importance of trade in services for the growth and development of the world conomy. The GATS is a new rule rather than GATT's rule for concerning goods trade. The Article V of GATS under WTO is a rule that makes based on upon the Article XXIV of GATT. Therefore, If it is to be examined the Article V of GATS, it should be referred to a and an interpretation of the text of the Article XXIV of GATT. However, the Article V of GATS is on the undeveloped stage compare to the Article XXIV of GATT. Because, the statistics of WTO showed that the RTAs under the Article XXIV of GATT have 150 cases completed between nations, but the RTAs under the Article IV of GATS have 10 cases completed between nations. The Forth examined the interpretation of FTA rules under WTO in the chapter 5. Concerning the consistency issue of customs unions and free-trade area under the Article XXIV of GATT, the working parties in customs unions and in free-trade area have been reviewed the consistency is sue which had been not if to GATT. However, the parties finished to get up with one accord the both that are a consistency of argument and an inconsistency of argument with the interpretation of the Article XXIV of GATT. The interpretation of the Article XXIV of GATT has been raised as the issues when EEC by Rome Treaty established in 1957. However, the consistency is sue only agreed 6 working parties out of 69 working parties finished the reviewing of the interpretation up to the end of 1994. Also the consistency issue concerned with the special privilege measure of the customs unions and tree-trade area under the Article XXIV of GATT discussed only 3 cases between working parties up to now and did not accepted as an issue for working parties' report. In conclusion in the chapter 6, this study raised the issues of WTO that are a conference of a new round under WTO and the issues of clarity between FTA rule and WTO regulation.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.3-23
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• 2017

With the globalization of the world economy, international trade networks are expanding beyond geographical proximity, and the expansion of such trade networks is playing a role in promoting globalization. Korea has established itself as a strong FTA for the past 13 years, starting with the Korea-Chile FTA. Successful establishment of a short-term FTA network has shown positive economic effects such as increased trade volume with partner countries and market share in overseas markets. Other countries are also turning to the paradigm of economic development through the formation of a regional economic integration and a bilateral trade agreement network, and it is time to investigate new opportunities through understanding the entire RTA and FTA network. In this study, we analyzed the status of RTA and FTA from the 1960s to 2010s, analyzed network structure and centrality through SNA(social network analysis). The results of the study show that the structure of the FTA network is gradually expanding, and the FTA network, which has been expanding to the center of the early European countries, is changing toward the Asian countries such as Korea, China and Japan. As a result of the analysis of the degree of centrality, Korea was ranked as the top in all the degree of centrality(Degree, Betweenness, Closeness and Eigenvector) indicators for a short period of time and it means that Korea's FTA strategy was evaluated as very successful. This study examines the FTA among the global RTAs, assesses the structure of the FTAs and evaluates Korea's FTA strategies and the FTA network from a network perspective.