1997년 외환위기의 통상부분에서의 파급효과

The financial crisis in 1997 could be counted as one of the key turning points in the modern Korean history. The unprecedented economic crisis forced Korea to adopt and implement massive reform measures in a wide range of areas in Korea. For better or worse, the economic environment has changed significantly during the past 10 years, and deregulation and liberalization have taken place in almost all economic sectors. Marking the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis, Korea could feel the impact of the financial crisis in almost all corners of the society. Scholars and officials in Korea are busy trying to retrieve the implication and learn the lesson from the financial crisis itself and its aftershocks. What is being overlooked in this regard, however, is the financial crisis’ impact on and implication for Korea’s international trade sector. The general misperception and misunderstanding have been that financial crisis does not have direct relationship with trade issue or disputes. That has not been the case, however. Starting from right after the financial crisis, the Korean government had to adopt measures to help Korean companies and financial institutions overcome the financial difficulties through various measures. By way of example, it introduced a systematic corporate restructuring mechanism to prevent massive corporate bankruptcies and injected a massive amount of money into financial institutions to maintain the stability of the financial system in general. These measures, however, later became the sources of continuing trade disputes between Korea and its major trading partners. Foreign governments have been complaining that these measures constitute illegal subsidies, indicate the Korean government’s continuing effort to protect domestic services and goods market from foreign penetration, and discriminate foreign service providers or investors in the Korean market. Recent FTA negotiations with the United States and the European Union have shown that these claims by foreign countries will not go away easily. In retrospect, some of these disputes could have been avoided or contained if Korea had known the implication on trade issues early on and taken appropriate preventive measures. Korea’s prevalence in recent disputes arising from the 1997 financial crisis proves that with proper preparation Korea could successfully defend itself in these trade disputes. These experiences collectively tell Korea that if it encounters any future economic crisis again, one of the issues that it needs to analyze is the trade implication of governmental measures. This would be one of the crucial lessons that Korea has learned from the 1997 financial crisis.