• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.363-394
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• 2012

WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) was designed to liberalize and expand trade in government procurement. Revised GPA was implemented in 1996 and the latest revision was completed (but not yet implemented) in 2012, but as a plurilateral agreement. Since the end of the UR, there has been attempts by various WTO members to liberalize trade in the government procurement market - through an expansion of Parties who are signatories to GPA, and through a negotiated agreement on transparency in government procurement. The attempt to expand the Parties who are signatories to the GPA - attempt to increase the width of the coverage of the agreement - has been somewhat successful, but I argue that the goal should be to further liberate the government procurement markets of the current Party members - to reduce thresholds and other barriers which limit market access even to other GPA members, in other words, to increase the depth of coverage. Taking cue from Korea's FTA, I propose a two-level liberalization of the government procurement market under the GPA: A "light" level which would be the same as the current level of liberalization; and a "deep" level with lower thresholds and less exemptions. I argue that, as seen in Korea, with FTAs, many GPA Parties already have multiple levels of liberalization (i.e, spaghetti-bowl effect of FTAs), but by limiting the levels of liberalization to two, we can seek the best of deep liberalization but reduce the spaghetti-bowl effect.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-32
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• 2000

This study tries to give an insight for fisheries policy makers to prepare policy proposals for Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization(EVSL) in the fisheries sector of APEC. To do so, the paper assesses the impact of EVSL on the fisheries sector, especially, Korean Deep-See Fisheries in quantitative way using the partial equilibrium analysis of Feenstra(1995). For the use of simple analysis, the paper focuses on the impact on trade flows and welfare of the elimination of tariffs on Korean Deep-See Fisheries among several measures of EVSL. The results from the quantitative analysis of the impact of EVSL on the Korean Deep-Sea Fisheries indicate that the increase of export is moderately higher than that of import and the total welfare effect is positive, even though a certain Deep-Sea Fisheries confronts a reduction of domestic supply basis.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.385-415
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• 2013

Inter-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) - notably between Asia and Latin America - are growing in numbers and complexity. There is an absence of an agreed methodology for empirical assessments on the content of FTAs and little research. This paper proposes a framework to assess liberalization in FTAs in goods and services and new trade policy issues relating to regulatory barriers. Next, it applies this framework to studying the 22 Asia-Latin America FTAs in existence. The findings suggest that Asia-Latin American FTAs have laid the foundations for inter-regional integration by liberalizing the trade in goods and services and reducing some regulatory barriers. Deepening FTAs and adopting structural reforms will enhance Asia-Latin American integration in the future.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.17-40
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• 2006

The trend towards forming economic blocs coupled with global economic arrangements such as DDA and FTA increase pressure on the liberalization of the agricultural sector. South Korea is taking part in the DDA negotiations. Once the DDA negotiations are implemented, the extent of liberation of the agricultural market is expected to be wider and timing of market opening is sooner than those effects of the UR agricultural agreement. A reduction in tariff rates and the government subsidy will follow, accordingly. However, many analysts in the agricultural sector express deep concern over a negative development in local agricultural market as demonstrated in China where the local market was dominated by imported agricultural products. This study aimed to investigate progress that China made in favor of the agricultural industry, including environment-friendly agricultural policy, and suggest ideas to drive the development of the agricultural industry in a better direction in Korea by comparing the two countries.