• International Journal of Contents
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.15-29
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• 2021

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Confucius Institute Chinese international promotion could better promote the development of China's foreign trade, by analyzing the distribution of the Confucius Institute worldwide, based on the theory of language economics, using SWOT analysis to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the internal environment, opportunities and challenges of the external environment of Chinese international promotion of Confucius Institute. The following findings were gathered: as a language teaching institution and information exchange platform, Confucius Institute has the ability to share trade information and increase trade opportunities; to improve cultural identity and reduce transaction costs; to promote cultural communication and integration, and drive the development of related industries. The internal disadvantages were mainly reflected in the mismatch between the global regional distribution structure of Confucius Institutes, and the economic and trade structure, such as, the asymmetry between language, culture output, and demand. In addition, the management mechanism was not perfect. External opportunities were mainly new opportunities brought by economic globalization, cultural diversity, and the development of the Belt and Road initiative. External challenges were mainly influenced by the China threat theory and the fierce cultural competition among countries. The corresponding countermeasures were put forward based on the advantages of the platform and grasping the external opportunities: improving the quality of operation and speeding up the localization process; respecting cultural differences and realizing cultural common learning; seeking multilateral cooperation and enhancing the capacity for independent development.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.53-80
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• 2021

The main objective of this study is to determine whether there have been TFP increases in the Korean manufacturing sector due to trade liberalization since the 1990s. Based on the methodology proposed by Pavcnik (2002), which focuses on the channel through which trade liberalization measures enhance overall industrial productivity by triggering the exit of low-productivity firms, this study tests the following two hypotheses: first, the TFP increase in the Korean tradable industry is not higher than that in the non-tradable industry, and second, plants with lower TFP levels did not exit from the tradable industry. Through the rejection of these two hypotheses, it is possible to infer indirectly the effect of trade liberalization on firm productivity rates in Korea since the 1990s. First, this analysis reveals that since the 1990s, the TFP of the tradable sector compared to the non-tradable sector presented a statistically meaningful increase only in the 2000s, when China joined the WTO and trade increased sharply between Korea and China. Secondly, TFP growth in the tradable sector was positively affected by exits, as it was plants with lower TFP levels that ceased to exist.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.427-465
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• 2018

East Asia, for long the epitome of successful engagement in trade, faces serious challenges: technological change that may threaten the very model of labor intensive industrialization and a backlash against globalization that may reduce access to important markets. The analysis in this article suggests that how East Asia copes with these global challenges will depend on how it addresses three more proximate national and regional challenges. The first is the emergence of China as a global trade giant, which is fundamentally altering the trading patterns and opportunities of its neighbors. The second is the asymmetric implementation of national reform - in goods trade and investment versus services - which is affecting the evolution of comparative advantage and productivity in each country. The third is the divergence between the relatively shallow and fragmented agreements that regulate the region's trade and investment and the growing importance of regional and global value chains as crucial drivers of productivity growth.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.47-66
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• 2023

Our study aims to explore the impact of China's foreign trade policy measures on the real exchange rate movement. We seek to provide specific references for the formulation of exchange rate and trade-related strategies. Our results indicate that China's bilateral trade is significantly influenced by movements in the Real Effective Exchange Rate (RER). When analyzing the relationship between aggregated trade flow and exchange rate movements, this paper finds that the depreciation of the real exchange rate leads to an increase in China's export volume and a slight decrease in its import volume. Moreover, China's export volume exhibits higher sensitivity to exchange rate volatility compared to the exchange rate level. Furthermore, the empirical findings regarding disaggregated trade flow suggest that different goods are affected differently by exchange rate movements. Capital goods and consumer goods, being in different stages of processing, show no negative impact on their import and export due to exchange rate depreciation. Consequently, we recommend deepening the industry's reform by improving production efficiency and transitioning the industrial structure to a higher processing stage. This approach can effectively reduce the negative impact of exchange rate depreciation.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2020

Purpose - Since China has been South Korea's biggest export destination, uncertainty shocks originating from it would influence South Korea's exports. This paper evaluates the effects of China's economic policy uncertainty on Korea's exports to explore the transmission channels. Design/methodology - Incorporating endogeneities and nonlinearities, this study employs a quarterly time-varying parameters vector autoregressive model to investigate the relationships between China's economic policy uncertainty and Korea's exports, where the overparameterization due to time-varying specifications is overcome by a novel stochastic model specification search framework. According to previous theoretical studies, this paper assesses two channels, demand shock channel and exchange rate channel, through which foreign uncertainty affects Korea's exports. This paper identifies the primary drivers of Korea's aggregate exports and analyzes the rationales for the time-variant impacts of China's economic policy uncertainty on Korea's exports to China. Findings - Our empirical results reveal that Korea's aggregate exports are less responsive to China's economic policy uncertainty shocks and significantly move together with global demand. In contrast, its bilateral exports to China are highly responsive in a negative and time-variant way. Moreover, Chinese investment is an important channel through which China's economic policy uncertainty affects Korea's exports to China after 2010. Further, the time-variant effects of China's economic policy uncertainty on Korea's exports to China are related to changes in China's foreign trade policies, global economic conditions, and China's degree of economic freedom. Originality/value - Few previous studies touch the effects of external uncertainty shocks on South Korea's exports. This paper attempts to fill this gap and explicitly investigate the impacts of China's economic policy uncertainty on Korea's exports from a time-varying perspective. As Korea is an export-oriented economy, this study provides insights for the Korean government to understand the transmissions of external uncertainty better.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.119-146
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• 2023

Purpose - As the severity of air pollution caused by the shipping industry is becoming evident, port authorities have started making efforts to reduce air pollutants. Considering the limitations of the currently implemented emission-control area (ECA) and vessel-speed reduction program (VSRP), which are narrow in the designation range and navigation behavior of ships, this study proposes an emission-control route (ECR) that can complement the aforementioned two environmental policies. Design/methodology - This study was conducted on Korea-China trade service routes (ports of call) of regular liners. This study employed vessel-specific data, which is from an automatic identification system (AIS), for 1,728 maritime transportations performed by 387 container vessels during one year (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022). Performing a scenario analysis, this study analyzed the effectiveness of reduced air-pollutant emissions. Findings - This study found that the implementation of ECRs could increase average voyage time by 12.38%-25.28% but reduced air-pollutant emissions by 29.02%-43.54%. Additionally, the increase in average voyage times reduces the anchorage time of ships outside ports, providing an incentive for ship operators to voluntarily participate in compliance with regulations, thereby contributing to the establishment of a virtuous cycle of air-environmental policies related to ships. Originality/value - This study aims to verify the policy effectiveness by designing an ECR scope for liner trade routes between Korea and China. Therefore, originality and the value of this study includes conceptualizing the ECR system, analyzing its environmental performance, and exploring new policies that can be implemented while complementing existing policies.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.313-331
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• 2007

In a rapidly changing environment of international trade, the purpose of this study is to examine economic benefits and losses of each country involved in the negotiation on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Northeast Asia and to prepare strategies for the negotiation in the FTA between Korea and China. Previous researches on FTA have been made mainly from the macroeconomic perspective. The approach in this study is a combination of regulatory, reviewing regulations, and economic making quantitative analysis of the economic effects of FTA, which are the basic background of FTA. In economic analysis, I estimated the macroscopic economic effects of FTA by examining the effects of FTA on the trade balance, GDP and production of focal countries through the Computable General Equilibrium(CGE) model using GTAP data set.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.1-26
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• 2019

Purpose - We examine the disclosures on foreign divestment from China by 77 Korean firms between 2007 and 2016 to identify the effects (and their determinants) on parent firm value. Design/methodology - We analyze how divestment affects firm value by examining the disclosure of divestment from China by Korean firms. Then, we examine the determinants of these disclosure effects using cross-sectional regression analyses. Findings - We find negative effects on parent firm value in the short and medium term, and both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ stock markets show negative correlations between foreign divestment and firm value. The parent firm's financial condition and profitability and the reason for divesting are statistically significant determinants. Practical implications - Most Korean firms in China belong to the manufacturing industry. As a result, divestment signifies a loss of important manufacturing bases and assets. Originality/value - We analyze foreign direct divestment, which has not been studied in detail previously owing to a lack of data. In addition, this research is the first to compare the disclosure effects in the KOSPI market with those in the KOSDAQ market for the same period.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.111-137
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• 2001

The establishment of the WTO system means that the global age of trade has officially arrived. Since the integration of the world economy brings about the free movement of goods and services between nations, it is inevitable that sea-bound freight will continue to increase. A recent World Bank report says that China and Korea will be the first and seventh largest economic Powers, respectively, by the year 2020. In particular, the Korea peninsula has a geo-political advantage in being developed as a major Northeast Asian container center. Moreover China's swift uprising needs new order of trade for economy belt in Northeast Asia. Therefore, it can be said that Kunsan Port. which has already been designated as a free trade zone, has greater potential to rise as a regional beach-head port and main region for foreign investment. As such. Kunsan Port will play a major role in accelerating the emergence of the West Sea in international trade. There are several strategies for developing Kunsan Port into a central container port: 1) develop Kunsan port Into an import/export front base f3r multinational corporations, 2) develop Kunsan container port into the core composite container-linked central port, 3) attract foreign investment to the Kunsan Free Trade Area so as to promote balanced development among the regions of Korea, 4) support the central government and local governments to accelerate the coming of the "West Sea Era." These recommendations call for urgent implementation.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.517-545
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• 2008

This study, tried to describe the corporations and competitiveness of IT industries in Korea and China as well as the general trend in trade using import-export structure. Further, based on trade intensity index, revealed comparative advantage index, Grubel-Lloyd index, constant market share, the trade structure between Korea and China was analyzed for the equipment in the fields of communication, information, broadcasting and their parts. The results are; first, since 2004, China has been catching up with Korea in the number of their companies listed in the global top 500 conglomerates. Second, the trade intensity index increased in 2007 4.57% up from 2002, showing increasingly closer connection between the two countries in the area of communications equipment. Third, according to revealed comparative advantage index, Korea's info-communications equipment seems to comparatively lag behind, but in terms of import-export structure is in the black. Fourth, in recent years, Korean equipment's market share in the Chinese market has been dropped due to the weakening competitiveness and the changing commodity supplies.