Recent Development of Korea’s FTA Policy and Implications for the Future

초록

In 1990s, the world observed rapidly growing numbers of FTAs and it was often reported that Korean companies were discriminated in foreign markets. The government of Korea was under pressure to turn around for FTAs from her dependence on the multilateral trading system to secure foreign market access for her exports and minimize economic losses from the isolation from the global trend of FTAs. Finally, then-Presidential Committee on the Globalization in 1996 commissioned a FTA policy paper on the behalf of Korea, but it was not able to open the paper for public discussion until the Asian financial crisis.