• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.105-125
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• 2021

Purpose - This study analyzes the effects that the response to the technical barriers to trade (TBT), which are used by various countries as means to restrict imports, exerts on exports at a time when protectionism is emerging in the face of a global economic downturn. TBT has been widely used in developed countries for the safety and protection of their people. Recently, the use of TBT as a tool of protectionism has increased considerably in developing countries as well. Therefore, this study analyzes the South Korean SMEs' response and export performance. Design/methodology - To analyze SMEs' response to TBT and their export performance, this study conducted empirical analysis through statistical analysis. To this end, the research established a theory based on previous research and designed its hypothesis and research model. To verify the hypothesis and research model, factor analysis addressing validity and reliability was performed using SPSS 25 and AMOS 26, and the structural equation model was analyzed. Findings - This study found the causal relationship between the independent variable, the mediating variable, and the dependent variable adopted against the theoretical background to have little or no effect, in contrast with previous studies. In a break from previous studies, all hypotheses were rejected for innovation strategic competencies, one of the sub-factors of the independent variable, which is believed to be a result of the lack of practical research related to TBT. Originality/value - Previous studies performed analysis using trade statistics or macro data. A number of such studies analyzed the relationship between technical regulation and trade volume. This study differs from previous studies in some respects, because it analyzed the export performance of companies by establishing a hypothesis and implementing a research model with the factors analyzed in previous studies. In addition, a new attempt has been made by classifying the TBT response factors into technology competencies, human resource competencies, and innovation strategic competencies, and utilizing technology innovation and the export support system as mediating effects.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.279-309
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• 2016

The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries whose joint gross domestic products (GDPs) account for 36 percent of world GDP and whose mutual trade accounts for approximately 24 percent of world trade. As for most proposed free trade agreements (FTAs), trade economists have provided ex ante computable general equilibrium (CGE) estimates to predict the trade, employment, and real per capita income effects of this agreement, such as ITC (2016). This paper-intended to complement these studies-examines the potential impacts of TPP beyond such traditional CGE estimates, taking a broader economic, governance, and historical perspective. First, we contrast these traditional CGE trade and welfare estimates that treat all firms within an industry as homogeneous with more recent CGE analyses that allow firms' productivities to be heterogeneous. We show that the latter models' trade predictions are much more consistent with ex post empirical evidence of average trade effects of FTAs. Second, empirical evidence now strongly confirms the existence of FTA "contagion." We review this evidence and show that predictive models of the evolution of FTAs indicate that the TPP should be formed. With China now having formed 12 FTAs and negotiating five new ones (including a sixteen member Asia-Pacific FTA), the United States would likely face considerable trade diversion without the TPP. Third, we examine empirical evidence on the likely further economic growth implications of FTAs by reducing firms' uncertainty over trade relations and trade policies. Fourth, we examine empirical evidence on the additional impact of FTAs on consolidating democratic institutions in countries. The TPP would likely help consolidate some of the less mature democracies. Fifth, we examine empirical evidence on the reductions of conflicts (and enhanced peace) between countries owing to the formations of FTAs. We conclude the paper noting that the potential net benefits to member countries of the proposed TPP extend well beyond the real income gains to households based upon traditional CGE models.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.92-107
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper analyzes the relationship between trade facilitation and agricultural products exports and estimates the effects of trade facilitation in importing countries on Chinese agricultural products exports, which is of great significance for promoting agricultural trade between China,Japan and Korea and the governments of the three countries to formulate targeted trade facilitation policies. Design/methodology - Based on Wilson (2003) theoretical framework, this paper sets up its own trade facilitation level measurement system by involving four primary indicators and fifteen secondary indicators to evaluate the trade facilitation levels of Japan and Korea from 2011 to 2018 respectively. The paper selected the data on China's agricultural exports at the HS4 level from 2011-2018 and used a fixed-effects model to estimate the effect of changes in trade facilitation levels in trading partner countries on China's agricultural trade. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: the level of trade facilitation in importing countries has a significantly positive effect on China's agricultural exports. The higher the level of trade facilitation in trading partner countries, the more Chinese agricultural exports trade, i.e. for every 1 percentage point increase in the level of trade facilitation, the volume of exports will increase by 2.299%.The sub-sample test shows that China's main agricultural products exported to Japan and Korea, such as aquatic products, vegetables, fruits and other perishable fresh products, are particularly significantly affected by the level of trade facilitation. Originality/value - First, from the innovation of the research perspective, which is different from the analysis of the existing paper on the overall trade facilitation of all traded commodities. This article is based on the close trade relations between China, Japan and Korea, and the particularity of agricultural products, from the perspective of China's agricultural exports to Japan and Korea, discuss the impact of importing countries-Japan and Korea's trade facilitation levels on China's agricultural exports;Secondly, in this paper, the hierarchical data of the HS4 quartile is used to avoid the information loss of the industry, and to analyse the impact of the importing country's trade facilitation level on the export of different types of agricultural products more scientifically.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.141-170
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• 2012

There are a couple of methods to analyze the trade effect of FTA. Some compare bilateral trade amounts, partner's share in total export, or market share in partner's total import. Others set up partial equilibrium models or general equilibrium models for more sophisticated analyses. The purpose of this paper is to analyze bilateral trade between Korea and Chile, Singapore, Switzerland and Norway using the Intensity of Trade and Special Country Bias. The Trade Intensity Analysis focuses on how much the real trade diverges from the expected one which is derived by the Gravity Model, and it enable us to define how much the bilateral trade is closely related with each other compared with the rest of the world. Also by excluding the effects of changes in Trade Complementarity, it enables us to evaluate the trade effect of FTA. The results show that regarding Korea's export, the biggest trade effects are found with Norway, and the effects are evading after a couple of years of outstanding accomplishment with Chile and Singapore. With Switzerland, however, almost no effect is found. Regarding Korea's import, Norway has recorded the biggest advance into Korean market, whereas, other countries do not show significant changes.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.153-170
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• 2020

Purpose - As the US-China trade war intensifies and lasts long time, there is growing concern about its potential effects on the global economy. In particular, for the countries like Korea that have a large economic dependence on the economy of the two countries, the US-China trade war may have a great repercussion in many ways. The aim of this paper is to investigate the global productivity and market structure implications of the US-China trade war for Korea, as well as for other surrounding countries and regions. Design/methodology - In this paper, we develop a full multi-country/region multi-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of global trade incorporating heterogeneous workers and firms in individual skill levels and used technologies. We then calibrate the model using a global Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) dataset extracted from the recently released GTAP 10 Database, and assess the potential effects of the US-China trade war on the aggregate real productivity and the market structure for Korea, as well as for other surrounding countries and regions. Findings - We show that the US-China trade war may largely affect the aggregate productivity in each sector in each country/region, as well as the global market structure through entry and exit of firms, which results finally in considerable changes in the industrial comparative advantage of each country/region. Though the effects are diverse sector by sector, the results show that Korea may also be affected significantly: concerning the real productivity implications, it is shown that the machinery industry may be affected the most negatively; on the other hand, it is shown that the number of exporting firms may decrease the most in the other transports industry. Originality/value - As the US-China trade war intensifies, many studies have tried to estimate the possible implications, and for this usually the CGE models have largely been used as the standard tool for evaluating the impacts of changes in trade policies. Standard CGE models, however, cannot be used to assess the global productivity and market structure implications due to the symmetric and simplified base assumptions. This paper is the first to analyze and quantify the possible impacts of the US-China trade war on the aggregate productivity and global market structure using a CGE model incorporating endogenous skill-technology assignment of heterogeneous workers and firms.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.183-195
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• 2022

Purpose - The study attempted to analyze how the U.S.-China trade dispute affects a highly trade-dependent South Korea. Currently, major domestic and international institutions have issued a number of conflicting predictions that the trade dispute between China and the United States will have a positive and negative impact on South Korea. Accordingly, the present study attempted to analyze using actual data. Design/methodology/approach - The analysis was conducted using actual import and export data from the United States and China and actual import and export data from the United States and China from South Korea. The analysis measured the number and amount of imports and exports by year and month, and the rate of increase and decrease. We also looked at trade dispute days, import and export outcomes and what the impact was. In addition, as a result of the US-China trade dispute, the amount of change in Korea's imports and exports was analyzed. Findings - Empirical analysis shows that South Korea's exports to the United States and China have increased. The analysis results are as follows. First, exports to the United States increased by 5.65% in 2018 and 6.45% in 2019 compared to 2017. Second, exports to China surged 12.34% in 2018 compared to 2017. This increase in South Korea's exports to the United States and its mass exports to the United States shows that South Korea has benefited from the trade dispute between the United States and China. Research implications or Originality - South Korea, which is highly trade-dependent, has been heavily affected by the U.S.-China trade dispute. Various predictions are made about this. The analysis showed that South Korea's export volume has increased. In the end, the effect of the trade transition to the 3rd country did not occur. Rather, the U.S.-China trade dispute appears to have helped South Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.394-394
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• 2023

The world's sustainable growth is being severely hampered by the inefficient use of water resources. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of trade in global and regional water and food security, societal reliance on local production as well as international trade remains inadequately assessed. Therefore, using South Korea as a case study, this study fills in this research gap by applying the virtual water concept, the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) method, and the Tapio decoupling model. The virtual water concept was used to estimate South Korea's net virtual water trade for major grain crops from 1992 to 2017. Then, the LMDI method was utilized to assess the driving factors causing changes in net virtual water trade. Lastly, the Tapio decoupling model was used to investigate the decoupling relationships between economic growth and the driving factors of net virtual water trade. Results showed that South Korea remains a net importer of virtual water flows with respect to grain crops, with an average import of 16,559.24 million m³ over the study period. In addition, the change in net virtual water trade could be attributed to water intensity effect, product structure effect, economic effect, and population effect. However, water intensity and economic effects were the major decisive factors for decrease and increase in net virtual water trade respectively, while the population and product structure effects had minor positive influences on the net virtual water trade. Furthermore, water intensity and economic growth showed a strong decoupling in most periods, while the decoupling state between product structure and economic growth was observed as expansive negative decoupling. Likewise, population size and economic growth showed a weak decoupling in most periods. The results reveal South Korea's status as it concerns the virtual water trade of grain crops, thus providing valuable insights into the sustainability of trade activities for the management of local water resources.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2024

This study developed a model to evaluate the co-benefits and trade-off effects between biodiversity and carbon storage capacity based on the implementation locations of nature-based solutions. The model aims to propose optimal implementation locations by using the conceptual idea of edge effects for carbon storage and connectivity for biodiversity. The co-benefits were considered by simultaneously taking into account two effects rather than a single effect. Trade-off effects were observed among optimal plans through a comparison of benefits. The NSGA-II multi-objective optimization algorithm was utilized, confirming the identification of Pareto-optimal solutions. The implementation patterns of Pareto-optimal solutions for green areas were examined. This study holds significance in proposing optimal locations by evaluating various co-benefits and trade-off effects of nature-based solutions. By advancing models based on this evaluation framework, it is anticipated that the assessment of co-benefits and trade-off effects among various benefits of nature-based solutions, such as climate change mitigation, enhancement of biodiversity, and provision of ecosystem services, can be accomplished.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.49-65
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• 2010

We have analyzed the trade effect of Korea-EU FTA on the Korean fishery sector, after reviewing the trade pattern and the tariff barriers of fishery sector between Korea-EU. For the trade effects, we have categorized into three cases: 1) the complete tariff elimination of all items, 2) the half tariff reduction on top ten valued items, with complete tariff elimination of other items, and 3) the complete tariff elimination, except unbinding top three valued items. The effect of the complete tariff elimination of all items implies the effect of the full achievement of FTA. For other two cases, these effects imply the effects of the transitional phenomenon of FTA since the complete tariff elimination happens gradually over more than ten years. For the complete elimination of tariff, we found that imports are increased by 1.1 billion dollars which is 12.9% increase in average imports during years 2006-2009. Also, exports are increased by 1.3 billion dollars which is 14.5% increase in average exports during same years.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.353-372
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• 2008

The economic development system of Korea is based on export-oriented strategy and the free trade agreement. So Korea is trying to conclude the free trade agreement with China, Japan, and EU. The reason is that Korea will have more chances to develop there economy scale and trade surplus, but it will give the worst economic situation. The research showed that the effects of FTA on Korea's GDP will be much greater than China's and Korea's trade surplus with China will expand in the manufacturing sector, but agricultural and marine products are layed in opposite situation. Especially comparing with other Provincial, Gwangju Jeonnam has a relative importance portion of agricultural and marine products. So, Gwangju Jeonnam have to prepare the effects of agricultural and marine products under the Korea China FTA.