The Eu-Korea Free Trade Agreement

1.

Adjustments, or so-call improvements, are made on the WTO agreement are in the favor of better adaptation to the situation of the nations involved. Citing the EU-Korea FTA agreement as an example, following shows how the modifications made in the FTA from the WTO agreement better suit the situation of the two countries in three areas - the competition policy regulatory issues, government procurement and intellectual protection.

About the competition policy regulatory issue, the FTA compromises on obeying the international standard, despite being more specific, the new regulation commits to the spirit of the WTO policy, in other words, the changes in FTA is to make the WTO idea practical for the two countries, not really an improvement.

About the government procurement, public works concession and build-operate-transfer (BOT), extending from the WTO agreements, is included in the FTA so as to provide more chance for the European global business leader to cooperate with Korea hence further enhance the openness of the Korea market. If such BOT are applied in the WTO agreement, it may deter some countries from joining the free trade that consider some regions need to be excepted from the agreement to protect important core value or for other reasons. In this case WTO agreement is not covering insufficient area but to be flexible for countries to fit in.

Under intellectual protection area, FTA's protection covers the existing WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), as well as the unregistered design. Actually TRIPS is a minimal agreement that meant to let participants to have more "stringent standards", which shows the WTO agreement is acts as a brief guideline rather than a detailed agreement. All in all, the insignificance of WTO reveals a need for amendment on the agreements, yet this does not hinder its importance being the leader and guideline for the development of world trading.

2.

Although the antidumping and safeguard action would hinder the degree of openness of a country, it is important for a country to reserve the right to protect its own interest, especially when its market is widely opened for foreign businessmen. It is the responsibility of every country to protect the interest of their citizen and the uniqueness of their place. After launching the FTA, the surge of foreign investments will lead to a more vigorous competition. Once the country allows foreign goods unlimitedly import into their homeland, the local industries will be harmed even come to extinction. It is nothing exaggerated. In fact, every part of the globe is suffering from the situation, stores are replaced by chained convenient shops; café is disappearing and Starbucks exist ubiquitously in every city. Not only did the business owners suffered, but also the irreplaceable uniqueness of every place, is now vanishing bit

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