ECIPE Roundtable: Can Trade Agreements Reform Societies? with Dr. Taeho Bark, Minister for Trade, Korea
While trade agreements are motivated by better access to export markets, they are also catalysts for necessary domestic reforms to improve competitiveness. However, there is no shortage of critics who object to reforms or increased foreign imports and workers at home, especially in a time of crisis.
No country has taken the lead on FTAs as Korea has. In the past three years, it has rapidly negotiated FTAs with two of the world’s largest economies – the EU and United States – and it is currently in intensive negotiations with China. What impact have the Korean FTAs had on the various trade agreements currently under negotiation in East-Asia? Have Korean FTAs led to domestic reforms to inspire the emergence of a new growth model? To what extent can trade transform both Asian and European Societies?
ECIPE has the pleasure of welcoming Dr Taeho Bark, Korean Minister for Trade, joined by leading European trade economists to a roundtable discussion on these questions.
All panelists speaking in their capacities as academics