Author: Robert M. Stern, Kozo Kiyota
Region: Asia
Theme: Economics
Location: Korea, South, United States of America
Published May 25, 2011
Download PDFThis paper builds on Kiyota and Stern (2007), in which we analyzed the economic effects of a U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (KORUSFTA). In Section II, we review the objectives and main features of the KORUSFTA as perceived prior to the negotiation of the agreement. In Section III, we then outline the main features of the actual KORUSFTA that was concluded at the end of June 2007 and is now awaiting legislative approval by the authorities in both nations. Section IV summarizes the results of a modeling study by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC 2007) that is based on the changes in bilateral tariffs and tariff rate quotas (TRQs) that were actually negotiated in the KORUSFTA. We also present for comparative purposes our earlier results from Kiyota and Stern (2007) that used the prenegotiations data and some specially constructed estimates of services barriers. Section V presents some calculations of the effects of alternative negotiating options that may be considered especially if it turns out that the KORUSFTA is not approved by either or both Korea and the United States. Section VI concludes.