Ten years ago today, Korea's very first free trade agreement with another country went
into effect.
The Korea-Chile FTA took effect in April 2004.
Over the past decade, Korea has signed many more free trade pacts and now is among the
world's leaders in tearing down trade barriers with other economies.
Marking the anniversary, we would like to dedicate some time to assess Korea's FTA with
Chile as well as those it's signed into with other countries.
We have live in the studio Dr. Kim In-chul, professor of international economics at Sung
Kyun Kwan University.
Dr. Kim, great to have you back.
Let's start with your assessment of Korea's free trade agreement with Chile.
How has it impacted the Korean economy and bilateral trade in the last ten years?
All right.
What about all
of Korea's FTAs?
How has establishing trade pacts with so many economies affected different sectors
of the Korean economy?
First of all, for Korea's exporters?
What about imports?
Would you say the effects of cheaper import items have trickled down and been felt by
the average consumers in this country?
Who are the winners and the losers from the FTAs?
Have the agro-fisheries and livestock sectors been negatively impacted?
The winners are in Korea's automobile industry?
Korea continues to expand
its FTA frontier - we know that the Korea-China FTA negotiations are currently underway.
Seoul has been working to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership... and many more are in
the works... as it strives to become an FTA hub.
What are the benefits of becoming such a trade-friendly country and your forecast for
Korea's FTA situation?
Dr. Kim In-chul, professor of international economics at Seoul-based Sung Kyun Kwan University...
thank you for speaking with us this evening.
We appreciate it.