INTRODUCTION

The EU–South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is one of many FTAs to have been negotiated by the Korean government over the past decade. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of Korea's policy and institutional framework for the negotiation of FTAs. It also makes some suggestions concerning measures that should be taken to ensure the smooth implementation of the EU-Korea FTA in Korea, in favour of the sound long-term development of EU-Korea relations.

Although Korea has negotiated many FTAs for its national prosperity over the last decade, some of these FTAs have provoked serious social conflict. Ironically, several political events related to the negotiation and conclusion of these controversial FTAs have made the Korean market and its society appear unstable to foreign investors and traders, despite the high levels of economic liberalisation achieved through the FTAs themselves. This chapter points out that this uncomfortable reality is created by a lack of democratic participation in the decision-making process for FTA negotiation. The Korean government has responded to the political turmoil created by FTAs, by updating the institutional framework for the negotiation and approval of FTAs. Nevertheless, this chapter argues that the current framework requires the incorporation of still more participatory measures, in order to overcome the fundamental problems rooted in the treaty-making process.