• 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.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.3-21
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• 2018

The WTO was established in 1995 as an organization which protects and promotes free trade among its members. However, since about this time they have signed many bilateral and multilateral FTAs and joined many other new international agreements and organizations, the purpose of which at times overlaps with that of the WTO. Some existing works on international organizations contend that these FTAs and many other IOs could weaken the role of the WTO as a promoter of free trade. However, the results of regression analyses on the use of the WTO do not support this argument, but show that the experiences of WTO members in these FTAs and many other IOs help them to use its dispute settlement mechanism more frequently

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.18 no.5 s.83
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• pp.103-114
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• 2003

공기업이 민영화가 이루어졌다고 해서 자동적으로 WTO GPA 양허대상에서 철회될 수 있다는 것을 의미하지 않는다. WTO GPA 양허목록에서 철회되려면 여타 회원국의 동의를 받아야 한다. 그러나 문제는 회원국들로부터 동의를 받기도 어려울 뿐더러, 현재 WTO GPA에는 공기업 민영화에 대한 명확한 기준을 가지고 있지 못하다는 점이다. 따라서 공기업이 민영화가 되었다고 하더라도 민영화에 대한 판단 기준이 없으므로 민영화 이후에도 양허대상에서 제외될 수 없다. 이러한 문제점을 해결하기 위해서는 공기업 민영화에 대한 명확한 기준의 설정이 요구되나, 이러한 판단 기준은 우리나라 독자적인 힘으로는 만들 수 없다. 그러므로 일본, EU 등 민영화 판단 기준에 대한 제안을 WTO에 제출한 회원국들과 협조하여 명확한 공기업 민영화 기준을 설정하는 노력이 요구되며, 이를 통하여 민영화된 공기업이 양허대상에서 제외 될 수 있도록 하여야 할 것이다.

• 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.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.68
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• pp.171-195
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• 2015

The large increase in RTAs since the late 1980's has challenged the foundations of the multilateral trading system, and thereby has become an axis in the GATT/WTOsystem.While RTAs can be seen to be contradictory to the overall aim of the WTO, they were allowed for in Article XXIV of GATT conditional to certain provision. The failure of compliance and subsequently enforcement of these provisions could be seen as a serious flaw of Article XXIV since the inception of GATT system. Many elements of GATT Article XXIV are not clear and thus lead to divergent interpretations of its disciplines. This considerable divergence in opinions arise from both ambiguities throughout the provisions under GATT Article XXIV. In this regard, both economic and legal work is required to keep up with constantly changing nature of the world trading system. Further, global efforts are required to resolve another teething issue of WTO's problematic institutional framework on GATT/WTO's oversight and surveillance of RTAs. and thereby strengthen the multilateral trading system. Needless to say, theGATT/WTOframework has been essential in paving the way for RTAs while ensuring a more multilateral and liberal trading system. Consequently, global efforts should be made to restructure the WTO for the renewed multilateral trade liberalization in the GATT/WTO.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.323-341
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• 2007

International trade conflict has been increased since WTO has appeared. Like this, the cause that the number of international trade conflict has been increased is by means of enlargement of agreements range. But some new facts have been added. They are Anti-dumping, subsidy, Countervailing duty, Safeguard, the norm of intellectual property right, the procedure of permitting importing products, Technical Barriers, agricultural products, and the area of textile. Since Japanese government has decided to give lavor import quarters to China without permission of Korea, Korean government formally presented the system of lavor import quarter to WTO DSB due to WTO agreement disobedience of Japan. Accordingly, this paper has the following purpose; to analyze situation on fiber dispute of Japan. Some methods about trade barrier against Japan need to be solved from another viewpoint owing to lavor IQ dispute.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.41-62
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• 2023

Purpose - This paper examines whether the imposition of countervailing duties by the United States on undervalued foreign currency is legally consistent with the WTO's SCM Agreement. Design/methodology - The study uses a methodology that involves analyzing relevant WTO agreements, prior panel reports, Appellate Body decisions, and other legal documents. Findings - The findings suggest that to impose countervailing duties, certain legal requirements must be met, including financial contribution, benefit, and specificity. The paper also notes that when calculating the benefits of undervalued foreign currency, losses from import activities due to currency undervaluation must be considered. Additionally, classifying all exports to the US under specific industries or business groups is likely to be inconsistent with the SCM Agreement. Originality/value - Even the US countervailing measures on exchange rate subsidies may not comply with WTO regulations due to incorrect calculation of benefits and a lack of specificity, however, it suggests that when intervening in the foreign exchange market, the measures should aim to achieve only minimum policy goals.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.4
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• pp.417-425
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• 2009

This study analyzed core issues addressed in the tentative agreement of WTO ministerial meetings held to finish WTO/DDA negotiations in Geneva in July 2008. The objectives of this study are to analyze changes in tariff reduction on timber products, and their influence on demand and supply of the items according to the modality of Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) and to provide basic information for strategy formulation of our country for further WTO/DDA negotiations. The results indicate that there will not be significant changes in the tariff on sawnwood and on veneer sheets, however, the tariff on plywood need to be cut by around 50% from the applicable tariff rates of 2008 on condition that our country is in the position of developed countries. Therefore, the item of plywood is expected to be influenced greatly according to the change in tariff reduction. From the analysis of influence of tariff reduction on the demand and supply of timber products including sawnwood and wood based panels, such as plywood, particleboard, and fiberboard, the import quantities of the items are expected to be changed from 0.8% to 13.3% if our country is in the position of developed countries, however, they are expected to decline by 0.8%~44.3%, if our country is in the position of developing countries (22, coefficient for developing members).

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.3-29
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• 2020

The WTO's dispute settlement system has played a significant role in settling trade disputes between countries, and its function and role have been expanded by handling about 596 disputes since its establishment in 1995. This shows that the WTO's dispute settlement system is gaining enormous trust among member countries that it recognizes as a fair, effective, and efficient system for resolving trade disputes. The U.S. remains uncooperative in the WTO dispute settlement system, citing disregard for the 90-day deadline for appeals, continued service by persons who are no longer A.B. members, issuing advisory opinions on issues not necessary to resolve a dispute, A.B. review of facts, and review of a member's domestic law de novo. The A.B. claims its reports are entitled to be treated as a precedent. These problems should be gradually improved through various discussions and agreements by establishing a multilateral forum for resolving disputes and gradually ending the problems through reform of the DSU.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.107-124
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• 2020

Purpose - We assess the trade remedies rules in a host of Korea's FTAs to explore the trade policies for the effective implementation of FTA trade remedies rules. Also we develop the strategies of the future FTA negotiations of trade remedies rules. Design/methodology - After we review the key features of FTA trade remedies rules, we examine whether the rules are WTO-consistent or not. Next, we touch upon the WTO-plus characteristics of some provisions. Our main methodology is to compare the trade remedies rules in the numerous Korea's FTAs. Another methodology is to link those rules to the relevant WTO agreements and WTO dispute cases with a view to drawing lessons for trade policies and FTA negotiations. Findings - We find that most of the trade remedies rules are WTO-consistent. Moreover, we find that notification and consultation requirment, mandatory lesser duty rule, explicit prohibition of zeroing method, and public interest clause are WTO-plus. We also find that there are limitiations in the application of some global safeguard exclusion rules because of their non-mandatory nature. Originality/value - While most of previous studies focus mainly on the unique aspects of specific FTAs, our study analyzes comprehensively the trade remedies rules in the various Korea's FTAs. Based on the comprehensive analysis, we figure out the areas to be clarified and improved for the effective implementation of FTAs and the strategies for the future FTA trade remedies negotiations. As a consequence, our paper is expected to contribute to the academic research on FTA policies as well as the national economy.