• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.3-25
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• 2022

East Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force in 2022 as the world's largest free trade agreement. RCEP was concluded, signed and brought into force in the face of major international uncertainty and is a significant boost to the global trading system. RCEP brings Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand into the same agreement with the ten member ASEAN group at its centre. It keeps markets open and updates trade and investment rules in East Asia, a major centre of global economic activity, at a time of rising protectionism when the WTO itself is under threat. The agreement builds on ASEAN's free trade agreements and strengthens ASEAN centrality. One of the pillars of RCEP is an economic cooperation agenda which has its antecedents in ASEAN's approach to bringing along its least developed members and builds on the experience of capacity building in APEC and technical cooperation under the ASEAN Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. There is an opportunity to create a framework that facilitates deeper economic cooperation that involves experience-sharing, extending RCEP's rules and membership at the same time as strengthening political cooperation. The paper suggests some areas that might be best suited to cooperation - that is confidence and trust building instead of or before negotiation - and discusses how non-members may be engaged and the membership expanded. Options such as multilateralising provisions and becoming a platform for policy convergence and coordinating unilateral reforms are canvassed.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.119-134
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• 2022

A new protectionism caused by the US-China competition and a following new Cold War would have a negative impact on global FDI. In this time, this study researched the effects of the long lasting global openness and liberalization on Korea's Inward FDI. 1,387 foreign invested companies in Korea were analyzed. The results are summarized as follows. First, Korea's FDI has been expanded under the environment of globalization. The IFDI amount and share in GDP increased. Seven countries out of the world top 10 were listed in Korea' the top 10. However, the share of the US and Japan's FDI in Korea's IFDI decreased. Second, non-manufacturing industry became prevalent in Korea's IFDI. Considering it's local market-oriented characteristics, the biggest investment motivation by global companies was Korean market pursuit. The US was more local market-oriented than Japan. Third, cross-border M&A, which became active in developed countries since 1980s, also kicked off in Korea from late 1990s. Global companies managed foreign-invested companies in Korea with shares close to wholly owned. The US had higher share ratios than Japan. The implications by this research are as follows. First, looming protectionism by a New Cold War would negatively affect Korea's IFDI through the adverse function of globalization. Second, Korea's IFDI has been converted to a market pursuit type being mainly leaded by non-manufacturing industry. Since GDP is the largest FDI motive in this type of FDI, the key policy for IFDI promotion is lying in the expansion of domestic market rather than deregulation.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.92-102
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• 2018

This paper studied the changes and effects of Korean Trade Policies in Vietnam market after the withdrawal of the TPP from US. Since Trump government is starting, US trade policy has moved to the protectionism method. Nevertheless, Vietnam is expanding its status as an FTA hub, and Vietnam is actively expanding its economic growth by actively implementing foreign capital. Vietnam, however, is likely to lose its position as a hub of FTA after USA's withdrawal from TPP member. So, Korea's trade policy is also expected to change its stance on Vietnam, and Korea is expected to change its policy toward Vietnam. Korea has achieved a lot of accomplishments and growth with free trade and free economic markets, and it has to strengthen its national strength even afterwards. Thus, if the flow of free trade & globalization continues, I would consider how the Korea trade policy change after the U.S.'s withdraws from TPP.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.75
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• pp.95-116
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• 2017

The global financial crisis has slowed overall growth in the global economy. In addition, uncertainty is increasing in the world economy due to the Trade protectionism, sluggish world trade, and a rise in the rate of interest caused by expansion of fiscal spending by major countries. In this study, we analyzed various factors affecting the container import and export volume, which has a high correlation with export and import of commodities in international trade. In particular, we will examine how exchange rate fluctuations and domestic and overseas economic conditions affect container imports and exports. For the empirical analysis, monthly time series data were used from January 2000 to January 2017. We use the Error Correction Model (VECM) for the empirical analysis and the GARCH model for the exchange rate fluctuation. As a result, container export and import volume had a negative relationship with exchange rate and exchange rate volatility, which had a positive effect on domestic and international economic conditions. However, the effects are different before and after the financial crisis.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.29-60
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• 2016

Research and Development(R&D) investment is an issue of central importance in any economy. In this paper we analyze the relationship between R&D spillovers and trade-related variables, using a two-stage model where duopolists simultaneously decide on R&D in the first stage and engage in Cournot competition in the second stage. We characterized and compared the free-trade and trade-restriction R&D equilibrium in a two-stage game of R&D investment followed by Cournot market competition. We also assessed the impact of varying the R&D spillover on the equilibrium outcomes and tariff. We showed for both free trade and protection cases that there exists a unique symmetric solution(subgame perfect Nash equilibrium). As the solution, while analytical, cannot be stated in closed form, we resorted to numerical experiments to investigate the equilibrium results. Our estimates indicate for both free trade and protection cases that the level of R&D investment and the rate of R&D expenditure decrease as the degree of R&D spillovers increases, and that there is an inverse relation between the degree of R&D spillovers and level of protection. The latter implies that the larger the degree of R&D spillovers, the lesser the level of protection.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.245-262
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• 2013

The transaction size between South Korea and the European Union (EU) had increased by more than two times among 2003 to 2008. With rapid growth of transaction, the EU was becoming important transaction object of South Korea gradually. EU has used the Antidumping policy as a trade protection tool against Korean products due to reduce the deficit of trade balance of payment, boost the economic growth and protect its weak industries. This paper investigates whether there is a connection between the EU's macroeconomic activity and pressures for protection to Korean products under antidumping measures with using the current data that come from the WTO, World Bank for 2004 to 2012. The result suggests that pressures for protection under Antidumping measure against exporting of Korean products to EU have increased during periods of macroeconomic weakness of low GDP growth, larger deficit of trade balance, however, has not significantly affected during periods of high unemployment.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.73-81
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• 2024

Purpose: South Korea is a close ally of the US and an important partner of China. Caught between the two most powerful countries, South Korea's strategic directions are critical. This article emphasizes that the deeper core of the US-China trade war is to improve the business environment to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to boost the economy, rather than engaging in the trade war. Research design, data, and methodology: Considering the complexity of this issue, this article applies a systematic analytical tool, the ABCD (Agility, Benchmarking, Convergence, and Dedication) model, to provide strategic guidance for inducing investments into South Korea in the context of the ongoing US-China trade war. Results: Specifically, South Korea needs to provide a more attractive business environment along the four points: expedite commercial activities through deregulation (Agility); adopt global standards of the flexible labor markets and technological developments (Benchmarking); integrate various industries and connect them to global value chains (Convergence); and create more economy-friendly policies rather than politics-oriented ones such as protectionism (Dedication). Conclusion: This study stands out not just by utilizing the ABCD model but, also by providing more systematic analysis and practical implications, particularly within the context of the escalating US-China competition. Unlike many existing studies that analyze the broader impacts of this geopolitical rivalry, this research delves into specific strategic guidelines for South Korea to attract FDI. The findings also provide implications for multinational corporations (MNCs) in choosing the locations for their overseas operations, particularly in South Korea.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.3-22
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• 2012

China has used the Antidumping policy as a trade protection tool against Japanese products due to reduce the deficit of trade balance of payment, boost the economic growth and protect its weak industries. This paper investigates whether there is a connection between the China's macroeconomic activity and pressures for protection to Japanese products under antidumping measures with using the current data that come from the WTO, World Bank for 1997 to 2010. The result suggests that pressures for protection under Antidumping measure against exporting of Japanese products to China have increased during periods of macroeconomic weakness like high unemployment, larger deficit of trade balance and decreased during periods of macroeconomic strength.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.441-463
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• 2009

FTA is acting as a central axis to accomplish the worldwide trade liberalization as FTA has been globally spreading with competition. As the global economic depression and the trend of new protectionism are getting grave, and the trade liberalization of GATT and WTO is getting delayed, FTA is spread as an alternative. FTA is often called as RTA: Regional Trade Agreement(regional free trade agreement) which takes place mainly around the neighbor nations or regular districts, and these days, it is tending towards agreements between long distant nations, so, it's not limited to the regular districts. Among the FTA agreement items, in addition to the customs abolition, the opening and investment liberalization of service market like finance, communication etc., intellectual property rights are included in the government's target range. Korea also is actively proceeding FTA conclusion. Korean government has concluded the agreements with Singapore, european nations beginning from Chile concluded in 2003, and is proceeding more the negotiations with Japan, Canada, Mexico, India etc. Now in 2009, FTA of Korea-United States is actually waiting for just the passage of assembly ratification. But, if FTA becomes effective, because our domestic market should be entirely opened, it is expected that the blow against our domestic agricultural field which is weak, compared with that of the United States, a nation of worldwide agricultural products, is not an ordinary one. According to it, we need a whole plan to cope with, so, the purpose of this study is to suggest the strategy by comparing and analysing the Korean agricultural competitive power, and to find the other development stratagem.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.47-66
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• 2018

This study analyzes the potential economic effects of a trade war between the U.S. and China. The CGE model is used to estimate the macroeconomic variables of each country and the change in imports/exports by industry by considering three different scenarios: (i) the US imposes a 25% of tariff on China; (ii) the US and China impose a 25% tariff bilaterally; (iii) the United States expands protection in vehicles and metals to Korea, Japan, and the EU. According to the results of the study, when the US and China initiate a trade war, GDP and welfare of both countries decline. China's decline in GDP and welfare are larger than those of the United States, which implies a trade war is more favorable to the U.S. than to China. In the long run, China's GDP and welfare decline widens further. While the trade volumes of the US and China are greatly reduced, the trade volumes of other countries does not significantly fluctuate. Finally, if the US extends protection policy to Korea, Japan and the EU, it creates undesirable effects on the US. In particular, damage to the US jeopardizes its advantageous position in a trade war with China. In order to emphasize the unfairness of protectionist policy and the damage to Korean industry, Korea needs to establish a strategy to counter US protectionist policy.