• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.133-155
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• 2005

After the publication of the competitive advantage of nations by Porter in 1990, the competitiveness of regional concentrations of industries has been often explained by the cluster concept. There are many definitions of clusters, but they mainly boil down to a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities. The shipbuilding industry in Korea can for sure be regarded as a competitive industry, as the spectacular rise of its world market share from 2% in the early 1970s to the current 38% impressively testifies, but can it be considered a cluster? Based on an analytical framework consisting of a typology of clusters and a context-sensitive evolutionary approach, the paper will show that over the last thirty years Korea's shipbuilding developed from a mere number of isolated, large shipyards (cathedrals in the desert) established by large conglomerates (chaebol) in close collaboration with the central government into an innovative cluster. The cluster is on the one hand characterised by a strongly developed supply industry and specialised universities and research institutes, but on the other hand by a weak, yet increasing role for local and regional institutions The specific and context-dependent characteristics of this innovative cluster are more important explanations for its competitiveness than the financial interventions by the central government, which are repeatedly put forward by European policy-makers in their trade war with Korea.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.177-191
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• 2019

Global trade protectionism has increased further and U.S. priorities and protectionism have strengthened since Trump took office in 2017. Trump administration is actively implementing tariff measures based on U.S. domestic trade laws rather than the WTO rules and regulations. In particular, the American government has recently been imposing high tariffs due to national security and imposing economic sanctions on other countries' imports. According to the U.S. Trade Expansion Act Section 232, the American government imposed additional tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to WTO member countries such as China, India, and EU etc. on march 15, 2018. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether the U.S. Trade Expansion Act Section 232 is consistent with GATT/WTO rules by comparing the legal basis of US / China / WTO regulations related to Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act, and gives some suggestions for responding to the Section 232 measure. As the Section 232 measure exceeded the scope of GATT's Security Exceptions regulation and is very likely to be understood as a safeguard measure. If so, the American government is deemed to be in breach of WTO's regulations, such as the most-favored-nation treatment obligations and the duty reduction obligations. In addition, American government is deemed to be failed to meet the conditions of initiation of safeguard measure and violated the procedural requirements such as notification and consultation. In order to respond to these U.S. protection trade measures, all affected countries should actively use the WTO multilateral system to prevent unfair measures. Also, it is necessary to revise the standard jurisdiction of the dispute settlement body and to explore the balance of the WTO Exception clause so that it can be applied strictly. Finally, it would be necessary for Chinese exporters to take a counter-strategy under such trade pressure.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.56-75
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• 2022

Purpose - This study examines the influencing factors of China's cross-border e-commerce exports in the context of the current situation and trends of China's cross-border e-commerce development. Through an improved trade gravity model, it provides more in-depth research and constructive opinions on the development of cross-border e-commerce in China. In this paper, factors such as consumption gap, volume of trade frictions, number of tourists, Internet usage and trade openness are added to the formula of the traditional trade gravity model in the improved trade gravity model to examine the influencing factors on China's cross-border e-commerce exports. Design/methodology - According to the empirical analysis, China's cross-border e-commerce exports to ten countries are used as dependent variables, and consumption gap, trade friction volume, trade distance, trade openness and number of Internet users are taken as independent variables. Regression analysis is conducted through a modified gravity model to test whether the hypotheses hold. Findings - The analysis shows that the hypothesis that China's cross-border e-commerce exports are influenced by trade openness, trade distance, consumption gap between trade parties, and the number of Internet users in the importing country is supported by these four hypotheses, but not all independent variables have an impact on them. Specifically, the number of travelers, trade frictions do not have an impact on China's cross-border e-commerce. That is to say, trade friction between China and the United States and political issues such as China-India and China-Japan territorial disputes that emerged before do not affect the development of cross-border e-commerce in China. Originality/value - The analysis shows that the factors influencing China's cross-border e-commerce exports are the trade openness of the importing country, the trade distance, the number of Internet users in the importing country, and the consumption gap between the two sides of the trade. The trade openness and the number of Internet users positively contribute to China's cross-border e-commerce, while the consumption gap and trade distance are negatively related to them. And the analysis found that the Sino-US trade war and the Sino-Indian territorial disputes and other trade frictions to China's cross-border e-commerce exports did not have a substantial impact.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.82-108
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• 2023

As tension escalates between the US and China, scenarios for maintaining peace in Northeast Asia imply that secondary powers will perceive increasing incentives to reappraise their respective international roles. This analysis proposes that an analysis of France's Cold War role in Europe and the world under President Charles de Gaulle provides insights into conflict management in an increasingly multipolar international political environment. Their respective interests in preventing a so-called new Cold War emerging between the US and China include avoiding its excessive economic costs, if only because China is a massive trade partner. This study engages in theoretical framework-informed process tracing of de Gaulle's role. It explicates the assumptions that functionally underpinned de Gaulle's policy of soft balancing between the US and China. The analysis explores de Gaulle's contribution to the decay of the Cold War. It illuminates de Gaulle's contribution to a regional international environment that made West German Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik strategy more feasible politically. This study applies these findings in the formulation of strategy recommendations focusing on Japan. Valid inferences regarding the predominant motivations driving American and Chinese international interaction are necessary for this task. To the extent to which the US and China have entered into a conflict spiral, Japan's hedging towards Washington is further incentivized. Tokyo would necessarily need to convince the Chinese that Japan is no longer Washington's unsinkable aircraft carrier off its coast. Tokyo, like de Gaulle's France, would maintain close relations with Washington, but it would need to project to its interlocutors its commitment to its own strategic autonomy. Tokyo's emphasis on closer relations with liberal democratic Indo-Pacific actors would potentially fit well with a commitment to strategic autonomy to defend the global liberal order.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.41-60
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• 2022

Purpose - The policy implications of free trade agreements have traditionally been a matter of debate among economists. The official signing of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement provides economists with a quasi-natural experiment to analyze the FTA's policy effects. This article aims to more accurately understand the impact of Korea's FTA accession on the macro economy. Design/methodology - This study adopts the counterfactual method based on panel data to find common factors in the generation process of macro data to fit the counterfactual path, to accurately evaluate the effect of the macro policy. Findings - Our research results show that the signing of the Korea-China FTA has a relatively significant short-term positive effect on Korea's economic growth. On average, Korea's real GDP growth rate has increased by 2.1%. This study finds evidence in support of FTA signing not having a significant impact on Korea's GDP growth in the long run. Additionally, we evaluated the impact of the FTA on Korea's imports and exports and found that it had a significant positive impact in the short term, but the trade effect of the FTA is significantly affected by the external macro-environment. Originality/value - First, this study uses macro panel data at the national level to examine the impact of the Korea-China FTA on Korea, and more accurately describes the policy effect of the FTA. Second, our empirical results show that the Korea-China FTA policy impact is subject to occasional changes in the external environment, such as the geopolitical conflict (crisis) between Korea and China, and the US-China trade war. Finally, the analysis shows that the short-term effect of FTA is significant but the long-term is uncertain, which provides empirical evidence for the debate on whether joining FTA can promote national economic growth.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.93-106
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• 2020

Trade is an important economic activity. In particular, since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the scope of trade has been expanding due to events such as the entry of China into the WTO in 2001, the establishment of a multilateral trading system, mitigation and integration of trade barriers, and the establishment of the free trade agreement (FTA). Despite the expansion of the trade market, however, extreme events such as the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2016 Brexit, and the 2018 US-China trade war have had a direct negative impact on the trade market. Therefore, the present this study analyzed the dependence structure between the international shipping freight rate index, a variable representing trade activities, and the trade uncertainty between the US and China. The following is a summary of the analysis results. First, the US-Chinese trade policy uncertainty and international shipping freight rate index presented a Frank copula and rotated Clayton copula 270° distribution, respectively, showing the same distribution structure for each country. Second, the Kendall's tau correlation revealed a negative dependence between the international shipping freight rate index and US-Chinese trade policy uncertainty. The degree of dependence was greater in the combination of uncertainty in China's trade policy and international shipping freight rates. In other words, the dependence of global demand and trade policy uncertainty confirmed that China was stronger than the US. Finally, the tail dependence results revealed that the US-Chinese trade policy uncertainty and international shipping freight rates were independent of each other. This means that extreme events related to the trade policy uncertainty or international shipping rate index were not affected by each other.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.45-53
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• 2003

In the face of trade opportunity of Chinese reformation and opening and the future largest single market, global or multinational companies and Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hong Kong's and Taiwan's companies will go all out to catch hold of one quotient. One trading war is about to start for funds, elitists, technique, and management in China now. It might be difficult to get profits in Chinese markets. However, risks can bring challenges, and competition can make progress. It's time to prepare for the challenges in the golden opportunity laid in front of us all.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 1986

War has been a reason for the culture of one conservative country to make contact with the culture of another country. The Crusade, among other wars, caused cultural exchange between the orient and the occident and had a great influence on the western costume. This paper has made an attempt to find out the influence of the Crusade with respect to the cultural exchange between the orient and the Occident and to study the influence which the Crusade has had on the western costume. The Crusade was the war in which the European Christians tried to retake the Holy Land, Jerusalem, from the Islamites through the 11th century to the 13th century. As a result of this war,the autyority of the Pope was weakned, the nobles were ruined and royal authority was consolidated. Due to the contact with the Orient, trade had become active, cityes had developed and the middle class of rich merchant had grown. Gothic architecture also appeared in the Occident at this time due to the religious influence of the Crusade. Turban type headdress and the brink decoration of clothes had been very popular under the influence of the Orient. Embroidery and applique had developed and silk fabrics which had been imported from the Orient had made the costumes more fabrics which had been imported from the Orient had made the costumes more gorgeous and luxurious. Many accessories were imported from the Orient. The Oriental culture contributed to the use of rich and bright colorsm, various ornaments and splendid textiles of the western costume. Owing to the influence of war itself, many costumes had been newly made in order to adapt to the hot desert climates of the Orient. Blazon decorations, uniforms and armour had also developed.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.256-268
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• 2004

Korea remains one of the few countries in the world that has not participated in any formal regionalism except its first FTA with chile which was just recently concluded. The lack or regionalism in Northeast Asia reflects post-war national policies that favored international export markets as an engine of economic growth. Based on a survey of 50 firms in Korea, this paper examines the relationship between regionalism and multilateralism in terms of computer industry. The results show that the industry favors international rather than regional markets for its continued export growth. According to the results, accelerated trade liberalization measures through the mutilateralism of the WTO dilute the demand for and negative impacts from regionalism. Overall, the results suggest that the Korean computer industry supports a trading system with a strong multilateral commitment based on non-discrimination.

• 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.