• 중국학논총
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• no.72
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• pp.101-122
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• 2021

Over the past 20 years, labor standards have been widely used in free trade agreements. The U.S., the European Union and China have all aggressively signed free trade agreements with their trading partners, developing different styles on labor standards. According to the study, the implementation of the KOREa-EU FREE trade agreement has been hampered by ongoing disputes over the terms of the FREE trade agreement and the ILO since the korea-EU free trade agreement was signed. Because in order to break this deadlock, relevant scholars have done a lot of research, but mainly focused on the economic and trade field. Therefore, this paper for the first time systematically studies the substantive focus of disputes over FTA and ILO clauses, and carefully analyzes the domestic law amended by South Korea, and provides suggestions and inspirations for China by drawing lessons from the revision model of South Korea's domestic law. This is from a newperspective: the essence of the korea-EU FTA and ILO disputes is the conflict between international law and domestic law, and the conflict between free trade agreements and human rights protection. It holds that the essence of disputes should be sorted out from the perspective of legal principles and human rights protection, and the free trade and human rights protection should be actively coordinated. In order to make China more actively integrate into the international economy, China should adopt a positive attitude to revise and perfect its own laws, so as to realize the purpose of common development of international trade and human rights protection.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.20-37
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trade structure and competitiveness of China's information technology (IT) industry in comparison to that of Korea and the United States, particularly in terms of quality. Design/methodology/approach - Indices such as trade specialization index (TSI), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), and Market Comparative Advantage (MCA) are used. Further, an Intra-industry Trade (IIT) index is used to analyze qualitative changes in horizontal intra-industry trade and intra-industry trade of high- and low-quality goods. Findings - China's IT industry has a comparative competitive advantage over that of Korea and the United States, and mainly exports goods of inferior quality and imports goods of superior quality. Further, China's horizontal intra-industry trade has been decreasing, while its vertical intra-industry trade has been increasing and vertical trade of inferior quality goods outweighs that of superior quality goods. This shows that China is rapidly catching up with Korea and the United States, even though its qualitative competitiveness has not significantly improved. Research limitations/implication - This study has academic and political implications, as it analyzes changes in China's IT trade competitiveness. However, it is somewhat limited as factors determining qualitative aspects has not been considered. Originality/value - Most studies aggregate analyses of export competitiveness using methodologies such as TSI, RCA, and market share. However, the focus of these methods is price competitiveness. Hence, an examination of the objective and qualitative trade competitiveness of China's IT industry is necessary. this study the trade structure and quantitative competitiveness of the industry by analyzing intra-industry trade focusing on the quality of competitiveness. Therefore, the changes in China's IT industry in the USA and Korea and in foreign trade competitiveness and quality competitiveness are clarified. The results show that the academic and policy implications of these changes in the IT industry will be a useful resource. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.341-350
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• 2023

Purpose - How are gains from trade distributed between countries when economic integration is achieved through free trade? The purpose of this paper is to answer this question. Design/methodology/approach - This study attempts to address the issue of distribution of trade gains between participating countries following economic integration in terms of positive economics. The analysis is therefore based on a theoretical methodology. Findings - First, commodity prices fall and consumer surplus increases in both large and small countries. Second, when economic integration into free trade is achieved, gains from trade always exist in small countries. However, the size of trade gains depends on the degree of difference from the market size of the partner country, the large country. However, the size of the gains from trade depends on the extent of difference between the market size of the large country. If the market size of a large country is much larger and there is a large difference, trade gains will be very large, whereas if the market size is similar, profits of domestic firm will decrease. Therefore, in that case, the size of the gains from trade becomes relatively small because only the gains from exchange exists. On the other hand, in a large country with a large market size, there is a possibility of trade gains only when the market size is similar to that of a small country, which is a trading partner. However, if there is a large difference in market size, the decrease in profits of domestic firm is relatively larger than the increase in consumer surplus due to trade, and rather, a trade loss occurs. Research implications or Originality - Our analysis contributes to filling the gaps in the literature regarding the distribution of gains from trade, and from a policy point of view, it is meaningful in examining the impact of market size, an important variable considered in regional economic integration of countries.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-81
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• 2020

Purpose - This study analyzes the scope of due diligence and risks of banks and K-Sure in trade finance covered by EFF focusing on Moneual case, one of the latest and biggest trade finance fraud cases in Korea. Also, we suggest anti-fraud measures in trade finance on the part of banks and K-Sure in order to give them a desirable way of due diligence and reasonable risk management of export insurance. Design/methodology - Based on Moneual case of trade finance fraud, this study employs the methodology of an extended literature review and analysis of court decisions. Findings - Seoul High Court of Korea failed to decide whether K-Sure was wholly obliged to pay the insurance against the banks' EFF claims, but issued a compulsory mediation order, judging that both the banks and K-Sure were responsible by 50:50. The court may have judged that both the parties had lacked their due diligence in the trade finance. It is quite difficult for trade finance providers to manually investigate whether the transaction is suspected of trade finance fraud, so digitalization of trade finance which can facilitate the prevention and detection of trade fraud needs to be realized quickly. Since there has been no international rule available for open account trade finance up till now, clearly stipulated EFF terms on the exporter's genuine export obligation might have protected K-Sure from the disaster. Originality/value - This study investigates the due diligence of the banks and K-Sure in Moneual case which few researchers have considered, to the best of our knowledge. This study also suggests several practical methods (including block chain) to prevent complicating trade finance fraud amid increasing use of an open account, and further offers reasonable risk management of EFF employing international factoring rule which is also related to problematic open account trade finance.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.22
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• pp.227-254
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• 2004

This paper focuses on the analysis of effects on fisheries sector following Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement and the results are found as follows. In terms of national competitiveness, the RCA(Revealed comparative advantage) index shows that Korea is higher than Japan in most species items. And the calculation of TSI(Trade Specialization Index) finds that Korea is export specialized while Japan import specialized, showing that Korean fisheries sector is internationally more competitive than Japan. The tariffs on the marine products should be completely scrapped between Korea and Japan, export of marine products to Japan increases a mere 2%, while import from Japan 13.5%. In terms of value, annual export to Japan stands at 20,135thousand USD, while import from Japan at 12,137thousands USD, resulting in trade balance improvement of 8,000thousand USD in total. The tariff measures above is expected to have a positive effect on the related industry of marine products such as Oyster, Conger eel, Ark shells and Laver, but those involved in fisheries of Alaska pollack, Hair tail, Sea-bream(live fish), Red horsehead(frozen), Saury are expected to be negatively affected. Given the results of analysis above, the effects of FTA on the fisheries would be advantageous to Korea as a whole, but at the same time, the advantage and disadvantage sustained differs by fishery type and marine products. To that effect, negotiation strategies and countermeasures should be made, taking the results into account.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2019

This study examines the normalization of Korean GM management between the Korean government and GM in terms of external negotiation game and internal negotiation game using Putnam's Two-Level Games. In addition, GM's Win-set change and negotiation strategy were analyzed. This analysis suggested implications for the optimal negotiation strategy for mutual cooperation between multinational corporations and local governments in the global business environment. First, the negotiation strategy for Korea's normalization of GM management in Korea can be shifted to both the concession theory and the opposition theory depending on the situation change and the government policy centered on the cautious theory. Second, GM will maximize its bargaining power through 'brink-end tactics' by utilizing the fact that the labor market is stabilized, which is the biggest weakness of the Korean government, while maintaining a typical Win-set reduction strategy. GM will be able to restructure at any time in terms of global management strategy, and if the financial support of the Korean government is provided, it will maintain the local factory but withdraw the local plant at the moment of stopping the support. In negotiations on the normalization of GM management in Korea, it is necessary to prepare a problem and countermeasures for various scenarios and to maintain a balance so that the policy does not deviate to any one side.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.87-100
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• 2019

A country's participation in international technical standards development directly relates to its trade competitiveness. Many countries adopt international standards or influence their development process through the ISO/IEC. This study applies the ABCD Model to assess such activities through a constructed ITS index, not only in terms of 'level' of contribution but also in terms of 'process' participation that can give important implications related to the future potential influence of countries in standards development. Having examined seven countries, Korea showed the lowest score implying the need to enhance its performance in both 'international standards adoption' and 'internationalization of domestic standards'. Korea needs to more actively participate in currently on-going standards development processes, establish more offices that improve accuracy in the development, and consider participating in additional committees where domestic interests may potentially be at stake. Although KATS has improved greatly in regards to its relevant activities and database construction, a more active and specific plan must be made to allow its efforts to successfully influence Korea in international standards development. Confronted with strong challenges from directly competing countries in trade like China and Japan that showed better ITS scores, there is a need for Korea to step up its research and participation in this field.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2018

Purpose - The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) among 16 countries including South Korea, the largest free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region, will be concluded next year. The participating countries decided to pursue a comprehensive and high -quality agreement, while ensuring flexibility considering development level of each country. In this study, trade structures between nations from 2005 through 2016 were examined to see the impact that this agreement will have on Korea and to come up with effective countermeasures. Research design, data, and methodology - The method of analysis includes the analysis of the trade matrix, which is useful for identifying the dependency of the individual countries on the market in the region and the reciprocal dependency of the member countries on the market, and the index of intensity of trade, which is useful for figuring out the share of trade between the parties in total trade. Results - The results showed that first, the international trade coefficients of Vietnam and Philippines are higher than those of China and Japan. Secondly, the international inducement coefficients between China and Japan were high, and that between Indonesia and Burma were low, indicating that Korea's exports did not have much effect on export increase of these countries. Third, as a result of analyzing Korea's trade intensity, it was found that export intensity and import intensity were greater than 1 in Vietnam and Philippines, which shows that there is a high degree of relational bond with these countries. India and Laos countries still have a low level of relational bond, which indicates that there is room for improvement in economic relations when the agreement is concluded. After the signing of the agreement in the future, more diverse industrial structures should be continuously studied. Conclusions - The analysis of trade matrix, trade structure, trade inducement coefficient and trade intensity between Korea and RCEP participating countries shows that the majority of the countries have the high level of economic relationship with Korea. Korea should drive a harder bargain when negotiating the terms of the RCEP, in comparison with the level of the existing FTA agreement excluding Japan.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.303-314
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• 2020

This paper investigates the relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit of 130 agricultural firms listed on Vietnam's stock exchanges during the period 2008-2014. Using the GMM approach, the paper reveals inverted-U shaped (∩) relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit. Specifically, the optimal threshold of bank credit and trade credit to total assets of the firms are 0.4173 and 0.2425, respectively. The findings mean that if the ratio of bank credit to total assets exceeds the benchmark of 0.4173, firms should consider restructuring debts to get them back to the benchmark. To do so, firms should withdraw from those business fields that are not of their profession, in addition to liquiditizing unused assets to repay debts and not using short-term credit to invest in long-term projects. Firms may use trade credit wisely when other sources of finance are lacking. In concrete terms, firms can increase trade credit use if the ratio of trade credit to total assets is below 0.2425. Yet, if this ratio goes beyond this benchmark, firms should get back to this benchmark, e.g., keeping a suitable amount of inventory. The implications of this study is to boost firm growth in the proposed way.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.117-124
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• 2020

This study empirically analyzed air transport trade patterns using data for 30 years between Korea and its trading partners in order to identify specific factors that determine the size of Korea's air transport trade. Independent variables were GDP per capita, capital distance between countries, country area data and number of airports. In addition, it reflected whether it is a landlocked country and whether it has joined the OECD, APEC and ASEAN+3. According to the results of the analysis, it was found that the air cargo trade pattern in Korea is proportional to GDP per capita, and the scale increases as the distance is closer. In addition, the national area and the airport capital acted as a factor in increasing air transport trade. However, whether a country is a landlocked country did not show significant results in terms of trade, exports, and imports. The OECD, APEC, and ASEAN+3 variables were found to generally increase air transport trade.