• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.20-37
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trade structure and competitiveness of China's information technology (IT) industry in comparison to that of Korea and the United States, particularly in terms of quality. Design/methodology/approach - Indices such as trade specialization index (TSI), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), and Market Comparative Advantage (MCA) are used. Further, an Intra-industry Trade (IIT) index is used to analyze qualitative changes in horizontal intra-industry trade and intra-industry trade of high- and low-quality goods. Findings - China's IT industry has a comparative competitive advantage over that of Korea and the United States, and mainly exports goods of inferior quality and imports goods of superior quality. Further, China's horizontal intra-industry trade has been decreasing, while its vertical intra-industry trade has been increasing and vertical trade of inferior quality goods outweighs that of superior quality goods. This shows that China is rapidly catching up with Korea and the United States, even though its qualitative competitiveness has not significantly improved. Research limitations/implication - This study has academic and political implications, as it analyzes changes in China's IT trade competitiveness. However, it is somewhat limited as factors determining qualitative aspects has not been considered. Originality/value - Most studies aggregate analyses of export competitiveness using methodologies such as TSI, RCA, and market share. However, the focus of these methods is price competitiveness. Hence, an examination of the objective and qualitative trade competitiveness of China's IT industry is necessary. this study the trade structure and quantitative competitiveness of the industry by analyzing intra-industry trade focusing on the quality of competitiveness. Therefore, the changes in China's IT industry in the USA and Korea and in foreign trade competitiveness and quality competitiveness are clarified. The results show that the academic and policy implications of these changes in the IT industry will be a useful resource. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.240-243
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• 2004

Recently, in the global and digital business environment, we are in need of a single window through which we can exchange market information, make a contract, exchange foreign currency, clear customs and settle accounts. The "e-Trade platform" provides all the stakeholders in international trading circles with these series of trading processes by use of any available information technologies in an effective and seamless manner. The platform collectively includes e-trade infrastructures(e-trade documents repository, e-trade messaging system, e-trade standard documents repository) enabling small and medium sized companies as well as large enterprises to interface with government organizations and global trading institutions. The IT levels of the trading companies are significantly important in terms of benefiting the quality services from the e-trade platform.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.115-137
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• 2005

E-trade is important that SMEs can do international business with activity. However, SMEs are facing psychological and economic barriers to e-trade. Therefore, SMEs depend on intermediaries for e-trading. In this context, APEC carried out the APEC Global B2B Interoperability Project to promote e-trade and increase benefits for member countries from 2002 to 2004. Especially this project emphasizes a collaboration with e-marketplaces. It has significance in that it is a new model to help SMEs do international trade. This study analyzes the APEC project in terms of technology and business and evaluates the project as a collaborative business model.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-81
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• 2020

Purpose - This study analyzes the scope of due diligence and risks of banks and K-Sure in trade finance covered by EFF focusing on Moneual case, one of the latest and biggest trade finance fraud cases in Korea. Also, we suggest anti-fraud measures in trade finance on the part of banks and K-Sure in order to give them a desirable way of due diligence and reasonable risk management of export insurance. Design/methodology - Based on Moneual case of trade finance fraud, this study employs the methodology of an extended literature review and analysis of court decisions. Findings - Seoul High Court of Korea failed to decide whether K-Sure was wholly obliged to pay the insurance against the banks' EFF claims, but issued a compulsory mediation order, judging that both the banks and K-Sure were responsible by 50:50. The court may have judged that both the parties had lacked their due diligence in the trade finance. It is quite difficult for trade finance providers to manually investigate whether the transaction is suspected of trade finance fraud, so digitalization of trade finance which can facilitate the prevention and detection of trade fraud needs to be realized quickly. Since there has been no international rule available for open account trade finance up till now, clearly stipulated EFF terms on the exporter's genuine export obligation might have protected K-Sure from the disaster. Originality/value - This study investigates the due diligence of the banks and K-Sure in Moneual case which few researchers have considered, to the best of our knowledge. This study also suggests several practical methods (including block chain) to prevent complicating trade finance fraud amid increasing use of an open account, and further offers reasonable risk management of EFF employing international factoring rule which is also related to problematic open account trade finance.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.22
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• pp.227-254
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• 2004

This paper focuses on the analysis of effects on fisheries sector following Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement and the results are found as follows. In terms of national competitiveness, the RCA(Revealed comparative advantage) index shows that Korea is higher than Japan in most species items. And the calculation of TSI(Trade Specialization Index) finds that Korea is export specialized while Japan import specialized, showing that Korean fisheries sector is internationally more competitive than Japan. The tariffs on the marine products should be completely scrapped between Korea and Japan, export of marine products to Japan increases a mere 2%, while import from Japan 13.5%. In terms of value, annual export to Japan stands at 20,135thousand USD, while import from Japan at 12,137thousands USD, resulting in trade balance improvement of 8,000thousand USD in total. The tariff measures above is expected to have a positive effect on the related industry of marine products such as Oyster, Conger eel, Ark shells and Laver, but those involved in fisheries of Alaska pollack, Hair tail, Sea-bream(live fish), Red horsehead(frozen), Saury are expected to be negatively affected. Given the results of analysis above, the effects of FTA on the fisheries would be advantageous to Korea as a whole, but at the same time, the advantage and disadvantage sustained differs by fishery type and marine products. To that effect, negotiation strategies and countermeasures should be made, taking the results into account.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2019

This study examines the normalization of Korean GM management between the Korean government and GM in terms of external negotiation game and internal negotiation game using Putnam's Two-Level Games. In addition, GM's Win-set change and negotiation strategy were analyzed. This analysis suggested implications for the optimal negotiation strategy for mutual cooperation between multinational corporations and local governments in the global business environment. First, the negotiation strategy for Korea's normalization of GM management in Korea can be shifted to both the concession theory and the opposition theory depending on the situation change and the government policy centered on the cautious theory. Second, GM will maximize its bargaining power through 'brink-end tactics' by utilizing the fact that the labor market is stabilized, which is the biggest weakness of the Korean government, while maintaining a typical Win-set reduction strategy. GM will be able to restructure at any time in terms of global management strategy, and if the financial support of the Korean government is provided, it will maintain the local factory but withdraw the local plant at the moment of stopping the support. In negotiations on the normalization of GM management in Korea, it is necessary to prepare a problem and countermeasures for various scenarios and to maintain a balance so that the policy does not deviate to any one side.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.87-100
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• 2019

A country's participation in international technical standards development directly relates to its trade competitiveness. Many countries adopt international standards or influence their development process through the ISO/IEC. This study applies the ABCD Model to assess such activities through a constructed ITS index, not only in terms of 'level' of contribution but also in terms of 'process' participation that can give important implications related to the future potential influence of countries in standards development. Having examined seven countries, Korea showed the lowest score implying the need to enhance its performance in both 'international standards adoption' and 'internationalization of domestic standards'. Korea needs to more actively participate in currently on-going standards development processes, establish more offices that improve accuracy in the development, and consider participating in additional committees where domestic interests may potentially be at stake. Although KATS has improved greatly in regards to its relevant activities and database construction, a more active and specific plan must be made to allow its efforts to successfully influence Korea in international standards development. Confronted with strong challenges from directly competing countries in trade like China and Japan that showed better ITS scores, there is a need for Korea to step up its research and participation in this field.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2018

Purpose - The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) among 16 countries including South Korea, the largest free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region, will be concluded next year. The participating countries decided to pursue a comprehensive and high -quality agreement, while ensuring flexibility considering development level of each country. In this study, trade structures between nations from 2005 through 2016 were examined to see the impact that this agreement will have on Korea and to come up with effective countermeasures. Research design, data, and methodology - The method of analysis includes the analysis of the trade matrix, which is useful for identifying the dependency of the individual countries on the market in the region and the reciprocal dependency of the member countries on the market, and the index of intensity of trade, which is useful for figuring out the share of trade between the parties in total trade. Results - The results showed that first, the international trade coefficients of Vietnam and Philippines are higher than those of China and Japan. Secondly, the international inducement coefficients between China and Japan were high, and that between Indonesia and Burma were low, indicating that Korea's exports did not have much effect on export increase of these countries. Third, as a result of analyzing Korea's trade intensity, it was found that export intensity and import intensity were greater than 1 in Vietnam and Philippines, which shows that there is a high degree of relational bond with these countries. India and Laos countries still have a low level of relational bond, which indicates that there is room for improvement in economic relations when the agreement is concluded. After the signing of the agreement in the future, more diverse industrial structures should be continuously studied. Conclusions - The analysis of trade matrix, trade structure, trade inducement coefficient and trade intensity between Korea and RCEP participating countries shows that the majority of the countries have the high level of economic relationship with Korea. Korea should drive a harder bargain when negotiating the terms of the RCEP, in comparison with the level of the existing FTA agreement excluding Japan.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.303-314
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• 2020

This paper investigates the relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit of 130 agricultural firms listed on Vietnam's stock exchanges during the period 2008-2014. Using the GMM approach, the paper reveals inverted-U shaped (∩) relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit. Specifically, the optimal threshold of bank credit and trade credit to total assets of the firms are 0.4173 and 0.2425, respectively. The findings mean that if the ratio of bank credit to total assets exceeds the benchmark of 0.4173, firms should consider restructuring debts to get them back to the benchmark. To do so, firms should withdraw from those business fields that are not of their profession, in addition to liquiditizing unused assets to repay debts and not using short-term credit to invest in long-term projects. Firms may use trade credit wisely when other sources of finance are lacking. In concrete terms, firms can increase trade credit use if the ratio of trade credit to total assets is below 0.2425. Yet, if this ratio goes beyond this benchmark, firms should get back to this benchmark, e.g., keeping a suitable amount of inventory. The implications of this study is to boost firm growth in the proposed way.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.299-312
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• 2021

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze Trade Structure after Korea and Colombia FTA, and identify its problems and suggest measures that can be taken by the government and corporations to reinforce economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach - To improve the level of contribution of the study, an empirical analysis is necessary. However, due to limited data access, the study will approach the topic of trade relations between Korea and Colombia with various statistics and literature. Findings - First, there is an urgent need for changes in import-export goods between Korea and Colombia, as trade is focused on specific items. Second, although foreign direct investment from Korea to the Colombia is centered in manufacturing and wholesale & retail, there should be different investment strategies by industries. Third, it is necessary to reinforce commercial cooperation. Research implications or Originality - The Free Trade Agreement between Korea and Colombia entered into force in 2016. Under the agreement, both countries will eliminated all tariffs within ten years after it takes effect. Reinforcing economic cooperation with Colombia is extremely important for Korea in terms of entering and dominating Colombian market. However, there is still a lack of research on the Colombia, and corporations that aim to enter Colombian market face difficulties due to lack of information. This study analyzes the recent trends of problems of trade between Korea and Colombia and suggests solutions for boosting trade to provide proper strategic guidelines for Korea that are planning to expand to Colombian market.