일본의 FTA 정책의 특징과 전망

Characteristics of Japan s Free Trade Agreement Policy

Japan s FTA policy is characterized as follows. First, it has put priority on neighboring economies in East Asia inter aliaASEAN members; secondly, it has opened its agricultural goods market less than its FTA partner in trade in goods thirdly, it has focused on the protection of intellectual property rights and foreign investors in the service and investment sectors lastly, it has utilized FTAs as a tool of not only trade policy but also of comprehensive regional policy. Korea is similar to Japan in many aspects. They are both located in Northeast Asia and their economies rely heavily on manufacturing as a growth engine. Exports are a main contributor to the two countries economic growth. Moreover, a domestic interest-adjustment mechanism regarding FTAs has not been well-established in either of the two economies. Unlike Japan, however, Korea is pursuing FTA negotiations with more than one huge, developed economyat once, without first going through the necessary process of trial and error. Korea needs to maintain a balance between the opportunity cost of not forming FTAs when other trading competitors do and that of forming FTAs impetuously without thinking of domestic circumstances. More fundamently, we should clarify the ultimate goals of our FTA policy, which is not a goal in itself but just one of several policy tools.