earticle

영어

After signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Chile in 2002, South Korea has concluded FTA negotiations with Singapore, EFTA, ASEAN, the United States, the European Union, India, and Peru, while in negotiations for FTAs with Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, China, Australia, and GCC (as of 2012). South Korea is creating conditions for future FTAs with each region. South Korea invests a lot of time and effort in FTA negotiations with each overseas region because Regional Trade Agreements (RTAa) based on FTAs have been increasing rapidly around the world since the early 1990s, while its multilateral trade negotiations initiated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) remain in the doldrums, making any major progress. The WTO statistics show that a total of 380 RTA conclusions (including those for the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were reported to WTO from around the world as of July 2007; among them, 240 conclusions were announced after the establishment of WTO in January 1995, 223 RTAs are being implemented as of September 2008, and 136 RTAs were concluded in the form of FTA. Another reason behind the flood of FTAs all over the globe may be that WTO attaches importance to multilateral trades and the WTO regulations exceptionally accept FTAs not running counter to several sub-sections. For example, the fact that tariff and other restrictions on other regions shall not be downgraded as compared with before the FTA settlement, although these agreements run counter to the Most Favored Nation (MFN) treatment. Considering both the global situation in which FTAs become universal and the domestic situation where the percentage of overseas trades in the South Korean economy is on the gradual increase (with the percentage of import and export in the Gross National Income (GNI) representing 94.2% as of 2007), South Korea can become alienated from international trade relationships and cannot possibly benefit from FTA-based preferential trade if it fails to swim with this global current of the times. In relation to the current issue of the reduced growth rate caused by low birthrate and an aging population, FTAs are also regarded as essential to the country in improving productivity through competition, securing stable overseas markets, and expanding foreign direct investment (FDI) domestically. To cope with this stream of the times for FTAs, South Korea is pursuing FTAs with many countries simultaneously, and has concluded agreements with large economies, including the United States, the European Union, and India in 2007, 2010, and 2010, respectively. South Korea chose to sign FTAs with these regions because they are the world's largest export markets. With South Korea-EU and South Korea-US FTAs coming into force in 2011 and March 2012, respectively, this study aims to investigate how the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSDI) will settle relevant real estate investment disputes.