• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.371-385
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• 2023

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze Korea's trade relations centered on the MERCOSUR, a major economic integration in Latin America, and identify its problems and suggest measures that can be taken by the government and corporations to reinforce economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach - To improve the level of contribution of the study, an empirical analysis is necessary. However, due to limited data access, the study will approach the topic of trade relations between Korea and the MERCOSUR with various statistics and literature. Findings - First, there is an urgent need for changes in import-export goods between Korea and the MERCOSUR, as trade is focused on specific items. Second, although foreign direct investment from Korea to the MERCOSUR is centered in manufacturing and mining industries, there should be different investment strategies by countries and industries. Third, it is necessary to reinforce commercial cooperation. Korea currently has Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Peru, and Columbia, but not with MERCOSUR. Therefore, Korea must take active measures to sign an TA with MERCOSUR, which has been put on hold. Research implications or Originality - Latin America has the most thriving market when it comes to Free Trade Agreements worldwide. MERCOSUR is a South American Trade Bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. However, there is still a lack of research on the MERCOSUR, and corporations that aim to enter the Latin American market face difficulties due to lack of information. By investigating MERCOSUR and its prospects and analyzing the trade relations with Korea, this study will provide strategic measures for corporations that wish to enter the Latin American market.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.60
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• pp.177-194
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• 2013

According to the 2013 statistics, the small/medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 99.9% of the Korean economy with 87.8% of employment. This simple figures also indicate SMEs export extension is a key task for the national economy stimulation and job creation. The SMEs export plunge has been affected by the European financial turbulence, US financial instability, developing countries like China entering foreign markets, a weak yen, etc. EXIM Bank, in this context, will need to take a more proactive attitude to provide trade finance by, for example, reviewing the business feasibility for SMEs with a lower credit rank or investigating importers' credit status, etc. Moreover EXIM Bank provides factoring service mostly to large companies and should lower its threshold for service provision to SMEs. Finally EXIM Bank should play more than a primary forfeiting market entity. It also needs to facilitate the secondary forfeiting market.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.135-157
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• 2002

The fact that Pyeongtaek Port is located ideally at the central point of the Yellow Sea's Economic Zone and it is very close to the metropolitan area of South Korea which occupies more than 50 percent of the total trade volume in terms of tonnage is providing a good prospect of development for the Port of Pyeongtaek. This study examines the perception of shippers in Kyonggi-do on the development of Pyeongtaek Port, giving some suggestions to the Pyeongtaek Port Authority. It begins with a description of the port such as current economic status, statistics on the economy, trade and investment regarding the Port of Pyeongtaek. According to a particular questionnaire survey conducted in December 2001, the major obstacles to the utilization of the port are as follows: a shortage of liner shipping routes, lack of container handling facilities including container terminal, crane etc., and port sales promotion activity. Therefore the port should make aggressive efforts to attract container cargoes to and from China by expanding port facilities, implementing effective marketing strategies, introducing a customs-free zone/free trade zone, and strengthening port sales etc.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.174-196
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• 2021

Even though Sino-American relations of the Donald Trump era were perceived as predominately confrontational, with a symbolic trade war between the two, the scale of economic interdependencies between the United States and China results in either a need for collaboration or in serious losses on both sides in the case of lack of cooperation. The paper aims at analyzing economic relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China at the time of the Trump presidency. Analysis is based on the complex interdependence theory of Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye. The main hypothesis analyzed in the paper states: Asymmetric interdependence between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America limits the scope, intensity and length of a trade war. For the sake of the paper, economic interdependence will be analyzed. Apart from the reference to the state of the art, the document analysis and descriptive statistics are to be applied in the paper.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.110-126
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper examines the recently realized continuous volatility and discrete jumps of US Dollar/Euro returns using the frequency of five minute returns spanning the period from February 2010 through February 2018with periodicity filters. Design/Methodology - This paper adopts the nonparametric estimation. The realized volatility and Realized Outlying Weighted variations show non-Gaussian, fat-tailed, and leptokurtic distributions. Some significant volatility jumps in returns occurred from 2010 through 2018, and the very exceptionally large and irregular jumps occurred around 2010-2011, after the EU financial crisis, and 2015-2016. The outliers occurred somewhat frequently around the years of 2015 and 2016. Originality/value - When we include periodicity filters of volatility such as MAD, Short Half Scale, and WSD, the five minute returns of US Dollar/Euro exchange rates have smaller daily jump probabilities by 20-30% than when we do not include the periodicity filters of volatility. Thus, when we consider the periodicity filters of volatility such as MAD, Short Half Scale, and WSD, the five minute returns of US Dollar/Euro have considerably smaller jump probabilities.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.293-309
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• 2022

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the import and export volume of Jeollabuk-do to establish a plan to activiation Saemangeum New Port. To this end, this study utilized the HHI(Herfindahl-Hirschman Index), LQ(Location Quotient) analysis using the annual data set from the Korea Trade Statistics Promotion Institution between 2015 to 2020. As a result, it has been confirmed that the degree of export volume concentration (HHI (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index)) in Jeollabuk-do has been increasing over the past 5 years. According to results of LQ(Location Quotient) analysis, Brazil had the highest index in the case of exporting countries, and Meat, edible meat offal (HS 2) had the highest index in the case of export items. This paper is meaningful in analyzing the export structure using import and export volumes and proposing a plan to improve the competitiveness of Saemangeum New Port.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.31-37
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• 2013

Purpose - This study aims to strengthen the economic cooperation between Korea and Japan by studying the pattern of trade between them and identifying drawbacks. Thus, it aims to enable trade expansion by analyzing the factors that affect trade and identifying ways to improve them. If economic cooperation is improved, transport and communication costs, as well as the transaction cost of economic exchanges, can be minimized. Research design, data, methodology - The trade intensity index developed by the Japanese economist Yamazawa under his trade intensity theory was used to analyze the trade decision factor of Korea and Japan. Trade structure and decision factors were analyzed for the target period of 2000 to 2012, and the period ranging from 2000 to 2005 was compared with the period ranging from 2005 to 2012. This paper is an analysis of the resultant time series. The data were collected from Korea Traders Association, Korea Customs Office, and UN Comtrade (2000, 2005, 2012) and whole table indexes were calculated by the author. Trade related index was used to analyze the comparative advantage based on time-series analysis statistics data (2000. 2005, 2012) through an analysis of the trade intensity index (TII), revealed comparative advantage index (RCA), and trade specialization index (TSI). Results - The trade intensity index of the industries of Japan and Korea is 1.814 in 2000. The export ratio of Japan against China was slightly higher at 2.128. TII is indicated to be 1.600 in both 2005 and 2012, which means export ratio of Japan against China is considerably maintained in 2005; however, export ratio of Japan against China is diminishing gradually as its index is 1.600 in 2012. Second, as per the trade specialization index of the ship industry in Japan and China, TSI is indicated to be -0.818 in 2000, -0.308 in 2005, and -0.847 in 2012. Generally, it is still closer to -1 and especially, we can see it is more closer to -1 in 2012. Third, as per the revealed comparative advantage index of the ship industry in Japan and China, the RCA index in 2012 is 0.007, which is quite far from 1 as compared to the value in 2000 and 2005. Hence, the Japanese ship industry has a significant comparative disadvantage against the Chinese ship industry. Conclusions - Both countries invest most of their capital in the shipping industry. It is the shipping industry that receives the most capital investment in the two countries is invested and governmental policy funds are needed. As both countries have large shipping industries, this research project is very valuable. Japan and China are compared because they are Korea's neighbors. Also, Korea is strategically located in Northeast Asia and has a history of foreign intrusion from several countries. Therefore, the purpose of this research study is to understand the trade structures of both countries and intensify the economic cooperation between Japan and China.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.303-315
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• 2020

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze Korea's trade relations centered on the Pacific Alliance (PA), a major economic integration in Latin America, and identify its problems and suggest measures that can be taken by the government and corporations to reinforce economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach - To improve the level of contribution of the study, an empirical analysis is necessary. However, due to limited data access, the study will approach the topic of trade relations between Korea and the PA with various statistics and literature. Findings - First, there is an urgent need for changes in import-export goods between Korea and the PA, as trade is focused on specific items. Second, although foreign direct investment from Korea to the PA is centered in manufacturing and mining industries, there should be different investment strategies by countries and industries. Third, it is necessary to reinforce commercial cooperation. Korea currently has Free Trade Agreements with Chile, Peru, and Columbia, but not with Mexico, the largest trading partner among the PA. Therefore, Korea must take active measures to sign an FTA with Mexico, which has been put on hold. Research implications or Originality - Latin America has the most thriving market when it comes to Free Trade Agreements worldwide. With the official establishment of the Pacific Alliance (PA) in 2012, the economic integration of Latin America faced entirely new circumstances. Reinforcing economic cooperation with the PA is extremely important for Korea in terms of entering and dominating the Latin American market. However, there is still a lack of research on the Pacific Alliance, and corporations that aim to enter the Latin American market face difficulties due to lack of information. By investigating the Pacific Alliance and its prospects and analyzing the trade relations with Korea, this study will provide strategic measures for corporations that wish to enter the Latin American market.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.643-666
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• 2009

When it comes to current balance, both of Korea and China enjoy the trade surplus in goods while both countries suffer trade deficit in service. This facts demonstrate that two countries have comparative disadvantages in service industry. In order to identify the international competitiveness of trade in service between Korea and China, several indexes such as TSI, RSCA and IMS was calculated, using the IMF's balance of payments (BOP) statistics as proxy. The results of this analysis are as follows. Korea has a comparative advantage in four sectors (Transportation services, Financial services, Royalties & license fees and Personal cultural recreation), while China has a comparative advantage in five sectors (Travel, Communication services, Insurance services, Computer & information services and Other Business services). Construction services are indeterminate. However, the competitiveness of the two sectors-communication and computer & information-which China has a comparative advantage will be transferred to Korea if some effort to reinforce the competitiveness is added because the gap is being narrowed.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.187-198
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• 2022

This study attempted to examine whether the spread of infectious diseases and quarantine measures such as border blockade and restrictions on movement due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is the cause of a decrease in product trade. To this end, a gravity model analysis was conducted using commodity trade statistics from Korea and major trading partners. As a result of the analysis, it was empirically confirmed that in 2020, the time of the spread of COVID-19, the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic was an obstacle to reducing Korea's trade. However, in the case of 2021, it was not possible to confirm whether the impact of the pandemic had a significant effect on commodity trade. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 is different, the commodity trade situation in 2022 when the COVID-19 epidemic is stably managed is also likely to change. Since factors such as response to COVID-19 and the spread of vaccines vary from country to country, it is thought that such various factors should be fully considered in the process of establishing policies to end the COVID-19 era