Search All Site Content

Total Index: 6296 publications.

Subscribe to our Mailing List!

Sign up for our mailing list to keep up to date on all the latest developments.

KORUS FTA vs. Korea-EU FTA: Why the Differences?
Published May 15, 2011
Download PDF

The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) and the Korea-European Union Free Trade Agreement (Korea-EU FTA) are the major FTAs for the Korean economy. Although both FTAs share many similarities, there exist various differences between these FTAs. The objective of this paper is to identify the differences in the KORUS and Korea-EU FTAs in the areas of access to the Korean market in agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, and services. This paper also compares the treatment of the Kaesong industrial complex (KIC) in both FTAs. The main finding of this paper is that, although the United States and the EU treat services and the KIC similarly, the United States was able to negotiate more advantageous terms in animal and vegetable products and transportation. Meanwhile the EU received more favorable treatment in the areas of processed foodstuffs, fishery products, chemicals, machinery, and electronics. This paper provides an explanation of these differences and derives implications for U.S. exporters from the delay of the implementation of the KORUS FTA.

This browser does not support PDFs. Please download the PDF to view it: Download PDF