• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.139-158
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• 2023

Purpose - The study of co-movements between stock markets is a crucial area of finance and has recently received much interest in a variety of studies, especially in international finance. Stock market co-movements are a major phenomenon in financial markets, but they are not necessarily independent of the real market. Several studies support the idea that bilateral trade linkages significantly impact stock market correlations. Motivated by this perspective, this study investigates whether real market integration due to trade agreements brings about financial market integration in terms of stock market co-movement. Design/methodology - Over the 10 free trade agreements (FTAs) signed by the United States, using a dynamic conditional correlations (DCC) multivariate GARCH (MGRACH) model, we empirically measure the degree of integration by finding DCCs between the US market and the partner country's market. We then track how these correlations evolve over time and compare the results before and after trade agreements. Findings - According to the empirical results, there are positive return spillover effects from the US market to eight counterpart equity markets, except Jordan, Morocco, and Singapore. Especially Mexico, Canada, and Chile have large return spillover effects at the 1% significance level. All partner countries of FTAs generally have positive correlations with the US over the entire period, but the size and variance are somewhat different by country. Meanwhile, not all countries that signed trade agreements with the United States showed the same pattern of stock market co-movement after the agreement. Korea, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Singapore show increasing DCC patterns after trade agreements with the US. However, Canada, Australia, Bahrain, Jordan, and Morocco do not show different patterns before and after trade agreements in DCCs. These countries generally have the characteristic of relatively lower or higher co-movements in stock markets with the US before the signing of the FTAs. Originality/value - To our knowledge, few studies have directly examined the linkages between trade agreements and stock markets. Our approach is novel as it considers the problem of conditional heteroscedasticity and visualizes the change of correlations with time variations. Moreover, analyzing several trade agreements based on the United States enables the results of cross-country pairs to be compared. Hence, this study provides information on the degree of stock market integration with countries with which the United States has trade agreements, while simultaneously allowing us to track whether there have been changes in stock market integration patterns before and after trade agreements.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.84-104
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper explains why free trade agreements (FTAs) are more popular than customs unions (CUs) in respect of tariff coordination. Design/methodology - This paper employs an equilibrium theory of trade agreements with tariff coordination. I set up three-country partial equilibrium model with competing exporters. Domestic and exporting firms decide their optimal production under given tariffs and each country levies its tariff under the trade agreements. I found stability of implicit tariff coordination and preference of each country between an FTA and a CU. Findings - I demonstrate that two FTA members can keep their external tariffs higher than separately decided external tariffs by keeping the status-quo. This implicit tariff coordination can benefit each member through trade diversion. In a CU, each member country must have a common optimal external tariff and it must incur costs because each country may seek different external tariffs for their own national welfare. The benefit of implicit coordination in an FTA and the cost of explicit coordination in a CU account for the popularity of the FTA. Originality/value - This paper uses the idea of implicit tariff coordination in trade agreements. In a CU, tariff coordination is explicit and mandatory. All member countries must have a single common external tariff for each good. On the other hand, in an FTA, each country establishes its external tariff with the goal of maximizing its own welfare. However, each country can also coordinate "implicitly" by keeping the status-quo after establishing an FTA.

• 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.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.39-60
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• 2021

Despite the fast growth and rising importance of digital trade, there still exists no multilateral agreement governing digital trade. Significant differences in policy directions regarding key digital trade issues among the U.S., EU and China are the main stumbling blocks for reaching agreement on the multilateral front. To overcome this deficiency in digital trade rules, there has been active movement among mainly countries in the Asia-Pacific region for rule-making on digital trade. Starting with the CPTPP chapter on E-Commerce in 2018, there has been a series of digital trade rules agreed in bilateral or plurilateral formats, such as the USMCA, USJDTA, DEPA, DEA and RCEP. Korea is currently only member of RCEP, which contains an e-commerce chapter with lower levels of commitment as compared to other digital trade agreements. This paper provides a broad analysis of the recently concluded digital trade agreements, comparing the different coverage of rules, levels of commitment, and rules templates. The analysis aims to provide implications for the desirable direction of rule-making on digital trade and Korea's digital trade strategy.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.243-273
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• 2018

A consequence of global trade liberalization is that domestic regulatory policies have become a focal point for efforts to reduce the costs of engaging in cross-border production and exchange. This article discusses the general challenges of reducing trade frictions created by regulatory differences, focusing specifically on the role trade agreements might play in addressing regulatory spillovers. A case is made for a greater focus on plurilateral cooperation under the umbrella of the WTO.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.12
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• pp.615-641
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• 1999

Trade and the environment emerged as a major and complex issue for trade negotiators in the final stages of the Uruguay Round negotiations. The agreements and other international measures employing trade measures and trade sanctions for achieving global environmental objectives are Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer(1985), the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer(1987), The Framework Convention on Climate Change(1992), the Convention on Biological Diversity(1992), the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal(1992), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Faunna and Flora(1975), the Rio Declaration, the Agenda 21, etc. The texts of the World Trade Organization(WTO) incorporated certain provisions which were designed to reflect some of the environmental concerns are Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Properity Rights(TRIPs), Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs), the General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS), and Technical Barriers to Trade(TBT) There is the possibility of conflict between multilateral environmental agreements and WTO agreements granting waivers against trade measures and sanctions. This remains a possibility, especially between countries which are Member of WTO and which are not Members of the relevant multilateral environment agreements, and countries which are Members of both the WTO and the relevant MEAs. Measures taken under the trade-related provisions of MEAs could potentially give rise to conflicts under obligations arising in WTO texts. If the parties in dispute are WTO members while they are not members of MEAs, the WTO provisions can be granted a certain priority in terms of international norms and vice versa. When the parties concerned are both WTO members and MEAs, it will be rational to grant the WTO provisions a priority. However, such measures should neither constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where similar conditions prevail, nor create a disguised restriction on trade. Also any trade measures taken should be necessary to prevent developments in trade from endangering the effectiveness of an MEA and they should be proportional and least trade restrictive.

• 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.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.285-301
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• 2023

The growing impact of cross-border movement of information is increasing interest in information policy through digital trade agreements in major trading countries. Major trading partners are calling for the inclusion of their digital policies in trade agreements to strengthen market dominance and protect personal information. This study analyzes the meaning and disputed settlement cases of the WTO's public policy objectives and examines the tendency of stakeholders to standardize legitimate exceptions to public policy objectives in digital trade. The study also examines the desirable direction of digital trade standardization suitable for the changing international trade environment. There is still debate about the specific objectives that should be included and the extent to which they should be allowed to restrict trade, however this study finds that there is a growing consensus on the need for legitimate public policy objectives to be included in digital trade agreements. The study concludes that the desirable direction of digital trade standardization is to strike a balance between the need to protect legitimate public policy objectives and the need to liberalize digital trade. This balance will need to be adjusted as the international trade environment continues to change.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.139-148
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• 2016

There is an expanding global network of free trade agreements (FTA). High-quality, comprehensive free trade agreements play an important role to support global trade liberalization and are explicitly allowed under the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. An FTA is an international treaty that removes barriers to trade and facilitates stronger trade and commercial ties that contribute to increased economic integration between participating countries. Korea benefits from the global FTA trend; however it has started and developed FTA negotiations later than other countries. Current FTA agreements exist with Chile, Singapore, EFTA, ASIAN, India, EU, Peru, USA, Turkey, Australia, and Canada; in addition, there are ongoing negotiations with China, Colombia, New Zealand, and Vietnam. FTA open up opportunities for the textile/clothing industry to expand businesses into key overseas markets. FTA improve market access across all areas of trade to help maintain and stimulate the competitiveness of textile/clothing firms. This study examines the expansion of free trade agreements in light of changes in the international trade environment and the status of the Korean textile/clothing industry. Korea's textile/clothing export/import products and concession of tariff, country of origin covered under Korea-US/China FTA are investigated to identify problems. This study provides practical and policy implications for the textile/clothing industry in regards to the Korea-US/China FTA.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.381-396
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to analyze environmental and labor issues and related norms, which are new trade issues that are expanding in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, and examine the possible impact of these norms on domestic fisheries policies. Design/methodology/approach - In this study, literature research was used as the main research methods. The comparative analysis of international norms and multilateral trade agreements texts related to the environment, labor and trade were conducted. Findings - The new trade norms in the fisheries sector can be represented by labor and environment issues. Since domestic environmental and labor standards do not fully meet the standards of the multilateral trade agreements, it is necessary to ensure that domestic norms are supplemented and relevant policies are newly established through a review of international law on environment and labor. Research implications or Originality - This study confirmed that international norms related to labor and environment in the fisheries sector are mixed with soft norms and binding norms, and each norm is linked in a multi-layered and mutual way. Such international norms are being strengthened in connection with trade agreements and issues.