세계 섬유무역 자유화에 관한 연구

Abstract

The integration into the world economy has proven a powerful means for countries to promote economic growth, development and poverty reduction. Over the past 20 years, the growth of world trade has averaged 6 percent per year, twice as fast as world output. Since 1947, when the GATT was created, the world trade system has benefited from eight rounds of multilateral trade liberalization, as well as from unilateral and regional liberalization. Indeed, the last of these eight rounds led to the establishment of WTO to help administer the growing body of multilateral trade agreements.

Even though the world trade proceeded toward the liberalization, the trade of the textile and apparel(T&A) got protected by the advanced countries including US, EU. T&A industries have a long history of protectionism, including the MFA that governed world trade in these products from 1974 to 2004. Protectionist measures in T&A include: tariff barriers, and government subsidies and support packages.

The MFA governed the world trade in textile and apparels from 1974 through 2004 for 30 years, imposing quatas on the amount developing countries could export to developed countries. It expired on 1.Jan.2005. The arrangement was introduced in 1974 as a short-term measure to allow developed countries to adjust to imports from the developing world. Developing countries have a comparative advantage in textile production because it is labor intensive and they have low labor costs.

At the Uruguay Round, it was decided to bring the textile trade under the jurisdiction of the WTO. The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing provided for the gradual dismantling of the quotas that existed under the MFA. This process was completed on 1. Jan.2005. However, large tariff remain in place on many textile products by using the certificate of the origin.

Under such a circumstances, the T&A industries in Korea face the hardship because they lose price competitiveness, competing with the developing countries while they lose quality competitiveness, competing with the developed countries. Now the T&A industries in Korea seek to revitalize the lost competitiveness through FTA between Korea and US.