A middle power’s trade policy under U.S.-China FTA competition: South Korea’s double hedging FTA diplomacy

Existing studies on the roles and foreign policies of middle powers place too much focus on their security policies, while there is a dearth of scholarship on their trade policies. Middle powers have used free trade agreement (FTA) politics not only to obtain economic benefits through trade expansion, but also to achieve broader foreign policy goals. Given the U.S.-China FTA competition in East Asia, as a middle power, South Korea, has developed double hedging FTA diplomacy by supporting both powers’ FTA initiatives in order to avoid potential conflicts and maintain favourable relationships with both powers. Specifically, Korea has tried to maximize its national interest and, furthermore, to maintain regional stability by establishing two bilateral FTAs, the Korea-U.S. FTA and the Korea-China FTA, and by showing interest and participating in larger FTA discussions, such as the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership and the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.     

What Kinds of Trade Liberalization Agreements Do People in Developing Countries Want?

One of the most striking developments in the global economy in the past decades is the rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs), with many of them concluded among or with participation of developing countries. On the presumption that current popular debates on trade policy are not so much about whether citizens want free trade but rather what kinds of trade liberalization they want, we examine individual trade policy preferences with regard to PTAs that can vary in content along several dimensions. To that end we carried out conjoint choice experiments embedded in representative surveys in three developing countries that differ strongly in income levels, political system, and trade liberalization history: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Vietnam. We conceptualize trade policy preferences as preferences over the scale and scope of trade liberalization, environmental and labor standards, and labor market access (migration). Two main findings emerge. First, non-economic considerations, such as sympathy/antipathy toward particular countries and environmental and labor rights concerns influence citizens’ preferences at least as much as factors based on standard economic logic. Second, preferences over particular facets (attributes) of trade liberalization, that is PTA content, are surprisingly consistent across countries, despite strong differences in macro-economic and political context.     

Foreign policy as a socially divisive issue: the KORUS free-trade agreement

While the Korea–United States (KORUS) free-trade agreement negotiations were concluded in 2007, and ratified in 2011, the agreement has remained deeply controversial. Labor unions, civil society groups, and opposition politicians in South Korea have criticized the agreement as being unfair, and also in the United States have voices spoken out against the agreement. The process of negotiation by South Korea was deeply flawed, and the conclusion of the agreement, that included a unilateral ratification by the ruling party in National Assembly, was forcefully opposed by many groups in South Korean society with violent demonstrations leading almost to the collapse of the Lee Myung-bak government. This article argues that it was not only the perception of potential economic damage to, in particular agricultural, domestic interest that was the main cause of the public resistance to the agreement, but that the unique nature of the relationship with the United States, and how this influenced the progress of negotiating and ratifying the agreement in South Korea, was a leading course of the divisiveness of the agreement and the massive resistance it faced. This is also why while the conservative Park Geun-hye government has expressed its willingness to re-negotiate other free-trade agreements, it has remained adamant in its refusal to even consider reopening the KORUS agreement. It is not only the apparent trade benefits that accrued to South Korea that is behind this refusal. With the ruling party having lost the April 2016 National Assembly elections and presidential elections scheduled for December 2017, the conservative elite, concerned about its electoral fate, has no interest in re-opening such a divisive issue as the KORUS free-trade agreement.     

入世后中国贸易政策的调整

中国加入了世贸组织,如何将挑战变成机遇是目前面临的关键任务.要做的工作很多,其中贸易政策的调整显得尤为迫切,本文重点论述了调整的内容.     

Lessons in successful Somali governance

‘Somalia’ is often portrayed as the quintessential ungovernable, failed state – with pirates, terrorists and humanitarian crises as a consequence. This article tells how Somalis in Somaliland and Puntland today have realised a degree of successful governance in the Horn of Africa.     

Negotiated agreements in the Dutch context and its inspirations for Chinese environmental management

Covenants have become a widely used policy instrument in European countries. Covenants are negotiated agreements between government and industry in which industry obliges to take ＇voluntary＇ action to help realizing policy objectives. This paper describes and analyses the evolution and development of the use of such covenant model in European environmental policy practice. After an extensive evaluation of the effect of the covenants in the European context, the paper conducts a comparable study of the Chinese environmental policy context with that in European countries, expose that Chinese environmental policy and environmental practice is still in the first stage of Europe environmental policy and practice evolution. As a conclusion, the paper explores the possible application of covenants as a ＂third strategy＂ in Chinese environmental policy.     

Democratic Tradition and the Failed Presidency of Lucio Gutierrez in Ecuador

In April 2005, Lucio Gutiérrez was removed from office in the context of a fast‐growing economy. With no economic hardship to fuel social outrage, the failure of Gutiérrez illustrates how political and institutional factors can be the most important forces determining presidential survival. In this article, we qualitatively analyse the path toward confrontation between Gutiérrez and the congressional opposition which led to his political demise. We find that Ecuador's weak democratic tradition working through more proximate causes – radicalism, normative preference for democratic institutions and a negative institutional equilibrium – coupled with other institutional and political variables accelerated Lucio Gutiérrez's fall from power.     

Science,Politics, and Persistent Organic Pollutants: The Role of Scientific Assessments in International Environmental Co-operation

International measures to address environmental problems increasingly rely on scientific information, and a growing number of international agreements require periodic scientific re-assessments. However, the arena of scientific assessment, governed by a combination of scientific criteria and political interests, is not well-understood, and few case studies have mapped the influence of scientific assessment on the birth and development of environmental policy issues. This article examines the role of scientific assessments and the science-politics interplay in international attempts to regulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs), focusing on the processes within the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The study shows that scientific and political activities are intrinsically linked in international POPs work. Scientific and political agendas are co-constructed with no clear boundary between the science and politics spheres. Scientific assessments played a prominent role in constructing POPs as an issue of international concern, setting agendas and shaping policies.     

Aspects Behind Differences in Two Agreements Adopted by Riparian Countries of the Lower Mekong River Basin

Basin countries of the Lower Mekong River Basin in 1996 signed a new agreement about use of the shared water resources, which superseded the previous agreement in 1975. The new agreement is less binding for riparian countries in terms of use of water in the main stream and major tributaries. The difference reflected the changes in socio-economic and political settings. Following lessons were obtained out of the case: (a) A collaborative scheme may not function as expected when it is established by strong stewardship of donor countries. (b) The pace and character of the negotiation process towards implementation of a collaborative scheme is endogenous to the broader political and economic context of the basin countries. (c) An agreement among basin countries may be sustained only on a delicate balance of economy and political power among riparian states.