Characteristics of the Trade between Korea and China and the Implications for the Korea-China FTA

한.중 무역구조의 특성을 고려한 FTA 체결시 정책적 함의

The export is an important economic growth strategy in South Korea. South Korea is strongly dependant on external trades. Bilateral trade between China and South Korea has been grown rapidly in recent years. The China is now Korea's first-largest trading partner. Thus, the Korea-China Free Trade Agrement (FTA) in South Korea's trade operations is very important. A discussion of Korea-China bilateral FTA commenced in 2004 November. This paper is to recognize the phenomenon of major issued fields in the Korea-China FTA such as a manufacturing, agriculture, customs and seek a negotiation strategy that are summarized as follows. In terms of trade based on manufacturing, it is necessary to divide into a private, general reduction and priority reduction item to recognize whether it is complementary or competitive on the specific industry in the FTA negotiation by using an index regarding supplement and competition of these two countries. In particularly sensitive agricultural field, FTA should be progressed gradually after giving a certain period of time of grace period on the basis of various flexible tariff systems in order to minimize agriculture damage as a result of the rapid growth from import of Chinese agricultural goods.