• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.82-100
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• 2020

Purpose - This paper attempts to compare five free trade agreements with gender chapters ratified by Chile and Canada and derives lessons for Korea in terms of gender-aware trade policy. While Chile and Canada have three and two FTAs with gender chapter respectively, Korea has none so far, although it has already ratified an FTA with the two countries. Design/methodology - This study first investigates all the gender-provisions with the gender chapters, conducts a comparative analysis on the five chapters as well as a case study of one target FTA's implementation and achievements, and finally suggests policy implications for Korea's trade administration as well as trade-related agencies. Findings - According to the analysis, there are three phases in terms of advancement in gender-related trade policy. As Chile is in phase two and Canada is in phase three, Korea remains in phase one. It has a ministry related to gender within the government, but not within the OMT. It has statistics on female business, but not of women traders. It has a few gender-related provisions in its FTAs, but not a gender chapter. In this sense, new mandates related to gender-aware trade policy for OMT, KITA, and KOTRA should be provided to realize the concrete economic benefits resulting from empowering women traders and policies promoting them. Originality/value - Existing studies only focus on introducing gender-related international commitments and Korea's participation in them. This paper is the first attempt to compare actual gender chapters of five FTAs ratified by two countries with the most advanced gender chapters in the world. To gain benefits from the positive gender impact of trade agreements, negotiating and signing gender responsive FTA with future partners is one of the most efficient, as well as inclusive, trade policies urgently needed for Korea.

• 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.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.403-425
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• 2018

This paper documents the presence of "sensitive sectors" in Free Trade Agreements, defined as sectors for which the within-FTA tariffs remain positive. The paper includes some brief theoretical discussion of the welfare implications of these, but the main emphasis is on reporting two measures of this phenomenon for countries in FTAs that entered into force between 1994 and 2003. One measure is the percentage of tariff lines that remain dutiable, and the second is the change, from before the FTA to after, in the average maximum (across 6-digit products) positive tariffs. Both measures are derived from data in the UNCTAD TRAINS database, and are then related to measures of country characteristics that might explain them. Low per capita GDP countries tend to have larger fractions of dutiable tariff lines, while higher income countries tend to post larger increases in average maximum positive tariffs. Both suggest that the favored treatment of sensitive sectors is undermining the potential gains from trade that FTAs could provide.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2016

South Korea and Mongolia are both the member countries of the World Trade Organization, but neither was the country with FTA. Nowadays, South Korea widely concludes the FTA with other countries, and the trade area has extended toward the neighboring continents and seas. Mongolia is a country with smallest economic entity but large in area and with abundant underground resources. And it's a main strategic zone of Eurasia. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Mongolia began to turn to market economy, and eagerly made effort to open and reform. With the expanse of trade and economy cooperation between South Korea and Mongolia, Mongolia started its sea road expanding. And the south Korea went to inland to get the necessary resources. Both of them feed its needs and obtain its profits.

• The Korean Ginseng Research and Industry
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.3-8
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• 2007

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2012

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of Korea-China free trade agreement(FTA) on Korea's fisheries trade using the partial equilibrium analysis model of Feenstra(1995). The study tries to show the impact on trade flows and welfare of the elimination of tariffs Korea-China FTA on Korea's fisheries sector among several scenarios of trade liberalization. The results of the study indicate that the increase of fisheries export to China is lower than that of fisheries import from China. Therefore Korea-China FTA results in the decrease of domestic of fisheries production even though total welfare effect is positive. The study suggest several policy proposals for soft-landing of Korea-China FTA on Korea's fisheries sector. One of them is to lengthen the term of tariff elimination to minimize the impact on domestic fisheries sectors.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.307-329
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• 2023

This paper studies how the free trade agreements (FTAs) have changed the dynamics of Korea's imports since 1996. Specifically, the dynamic regression analysis on the transition of trade liberalization discovers three main findings: (1) import values of Korea increase gradually as FTAs enter into force; (2) the extensive margins of import work as a major source of the trade effect in the transition episode of FTAs; (3) the extensive margins of import tend to increase even before FTAs enter into force. This noble forward-looking effect suggests some potential foreign exporters or exporting goods enter the Korean market, especially when FTAs negotiation starts. It supports the early entry behavior of potential exporters found in recent international trade literature.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-71
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• 2021

Many different approaches and databases have been developed for the evaluation of non-tariff measures (NTMs) and free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper is devoted to the EU-South Korea agreement, which is the first 'second-generation' FTA of the EU, addressing a wide array of non-tariff policies. We review the evolution of NTM types applicable to the EU-South Korea trade relationship and the role of NTMs in ex-ante and ex-post analyses of the agreement. Subsequently a structural gravity model is employed to assess the value added of information on different aspects of FTAs and types of NTMs by evaluating their ability to predict the trade effects of the EU-South Korea FTA. Our results show that, when accounting for information on the components common in modern deep trade agreements, no additional trade effect is attributable to the EU-South Korea FTA. The evolution of NTMs differs considerably across indicators used, but trade predictions are hardly affected. Most specifications point towards a negative effect of bilateral differences in the number of technical barriers to trade (TBT) applied and sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) against which trading partners issued complaints at the WTO.

• 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.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.117-137
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• 2012

The objective of this article is to examine the characteristic features of contemporary policy-led regionalism in Asia. It identifies the positive and negative features associated with the free trade agreements that have proliferated in Asia during the first decade of the $21^{st}$ century. There has been a marked transformation in Asia's regional architecture in a short span of a decade-and-a-half. The mode and conduct of multilateral trade has been significantly transformed during recent years and Asia could not possibly remain immune to this transformation. The importance of regionalism in multilateral trade has increased steadily. In addition, the trade-investment-services nexus has developed and grown increasingly important. As business firms now manufacture parts of their products across the border, bilateral trade agreements (BTAs), regional trade agreements (RTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) of the contemporary period need to take into account the new kind of trade barriers that have been created due to the changing mode of trade. The contemporary regional agreements need to be designed to facilitate the new modes of conducting business and trade. It was understood rather late in Asia that the 'WTO-Plus' FTAs are more functional and result-oriented than their predecessors.