ABSTRACT
Since its dramatic industrial take-off in the 1960s, South Korea has benefited from the export markets made available by the US on the one hand, and the multilateral trading regime of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the other. However, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–8, the illusion of its unstoppable economic growth was shattered badly. Furthermore, frustrated when the WTO talks broke down in Seattle in 1999, South Korea increasingly recognized that the mediocre performance of the WTO and increasing competition in the US market could hurt export-dependent South Korea, exacerbating its lack of alternative trade channels. As a result, the then-incoming Kim Dae Jung government (1998–2003) began to pursue bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with its strategic trading partners, departing from South Korea’s earlier position on trade policy.
