Abstract

Cross-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have flourished in East Asia since the late 1990s. Japan and Korea were at the forefront of this trend. Nevertheless, most policymakers’ preferences orbited around region-oriented FTAs out of reluctance to make a sudden policy shift away from their conventional emphasis on World Trade Organization-based multilateral negotiations. The trend continued in Japan throughout the 2000s. In contrast, Korea took a sharp turn toward a cross-regional strategy in 2003. By the mid-2010s, this had created a significant gap in the two countries’ overall FTA partner choices. What caused policymakers’ ideas in the two countries to diverge from their initial focus on region-oriented FTAs? This paper focuses on the conditions that enabled policymakers’ ideas to explain the divergence by developing the contextual‒dynamic framework of FTA policies. At the dynamic level, individuals are more likely to emerge with new ideas when their expertise comes from outside the decision-making body, accompanied by their social qualities and power. Contextual conditions should also be met: the trade policy environment should reciprocate agent-level qualities to create a supportive atmosphere for policy change.

抽象的

自1990年代后期以来，跨区域自由贸易协定（FTA）在东亚蓬勃发展。日本和韩国处于这一趋势的最前沿。尽管如此，大多数政策制定者的偏好围绕着面向地区的自由贸易协定而行，这是因为他们不愿突然改变政策，而不再将其传统重点放在基于世界贸易组织的多边谈判上。在整个2000年代，这种趋势在日本一直持续。相比之下，韩国在2003年朝着跨地区战略迈出了重要一步。到2010年代中期，这在两国的自由贸易协定总体伙伴选择上造成了巨大差距。是什么导致两国的政策制定者的想法与最初对以地区为导向的自由贸易协定的关注背道而驰？本文关注的条件是使决策者的思想能够通过发展自由贸易协定政策的语境动态框架来解释这种分歧。在动态水平上，当个人的专业知识来自决策机构之外时，他们更有可能出现新的想法，并伴随着他们的社会素质和力量。还应满足相关条件：贸易政策环境应体现代理商一级的素质，从而为政策变革创造支持气氛。