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Political Leaders' Preferences and Trade Policy: Comparing FTA Politics in Japan and South Korea
Author(s) -
Yoshimatsu Hidetaka
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
asian politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1943-0787
pISSN - 1943-0779
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-0787.2012.01336.x
Subject(s) - politics , promotion (chess) , institution , executive branch , international trade , political science , commercial policy , economics , business , law
This article examines Japan's and South Korea's free trade agreement (FTA) policies in the new millennium, seeking to address the question of why significant differences in FTA commitments emerged by 2010 in the two countries. In addressing the question, it highlights, as an independent variable, executive leaders' policy preferences and concrete actions to realize them. Japanese chief executives had weak preferences for promoting FTAs and thereby did not show decisiveness to set up a new administrative institution and to persuade the people of promoting difficult but necessary FTAs. In contrast, Korean executive leaders had strong preferences for linking the growth of the Korean industry to the external markets through FTA promotion, and they sought to strengthen administrative institutions to propel FTA policy and to make the people accept FTAs as indispensable for sustaining the export‐oriented Korean economy.