South Korea’s Free Trade Agreement Roadmap and Canada: A Case of Promise and Betrayal

When negotiations began on the Korea-Canada free trade agreement (FTA) in 2005, both sides expected the treaty to pass quickly and uneventfully. Indeed, these negotiations were part of both countries’ rather aggressive plans to pursue FTAs with the largest and most powerful global economies. Moreover, both South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea) and Canada had complementary economic structures and had few problematic issues that could become roadblocks to an agreement. Yet, for a variety of reasons and happenstances, the talks came to an impasse and have been stalled since 2008. This article examines the reasons behind this surprising stalemate. Part of the problem was that the Korean negotiators perceived FTA negotiations with Canada as the first stage of a more ambitious “FTA roadmap,” a stepping stone to a more important agreement with the world’s largest economy, the United States. Meanwhile, Canadian officials viewed the Korea-Canada FTA as part of their country’s strategy to increase its involvement with Asia’s dynamic economies. This paper also argues that the changing status of Korea in a global FTA network, and the lack of consistency in Korea’s FTA policy, served as obstacles to bringing the two economies back to the negotiation table. Therefore, political or strategic motives appear to be more essential than economic ones for achieving a comprehensive explanation of the unpredictable outcome of the Korea-Canada FTA.