한국의 무역성장과 무역정책의 변화 (1945~2004)

A Study on the Growth of Trade and Change of Trade Policy in Korea (1945-2004)

This paper studies patterns in international trade and trade policies in Korea from 1945 to 2004. We first describe characteristics of the international trade in Korea. We characterize the early stage of Korean trade from 1945 to 1960，then describe the huge increase in trade volume, less than 10 million dollar in 1960 to 25billion dollars in 2004, and investigate the structural changes in export items from the light industry to heavy industry and then to IT industry. We then analyze some important features of Korean trade policies. We describe the changing patterns of trade policies, from pre-1960 period, the export oriented growth strategy in 1960s, the emphasis on heavy industrial products in 1970s, and the recent emphasis on IT and knowledge-based industry. Increase in international trade still has important meaning for economic growth in Korea.