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The Pros And Cons Of South Korea And Japan

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South Korea and Japan currently do not have any trade agreements in place and many observers attribute this to the political and ideological disputes between the two countries over territories, historical events, and security concerns. However, there have been attempts to foster economic cooperation such as the South Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement “Joint Study Group Project” in October 2003, and the South Korea-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement in April 2008 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan). Since then, these attempts have gone through a turbulent journey with negotiations halting and resuming with no fruition of a signed agreement.

Grieco states that the key interest of states is not about individual well-being, but survival and security at their core interest. A problem that will inhibit cooperation between states is the uncertainty of one state about another state’s future intention. As such, states pay close attention to how cooperation might affective their relative capabilities in the future, and the possibility of a more power potential adversary (Grieco, 1988). South Korea and Japan currently have a strong economic interdependence as we have addressed earlier in their trading relationship, it is highly unlikely that the two countries will have …show more content…

When all things considered, coupled with the current trade partnership and trading volume between South Korea and Japan, and assuming logically that two rational parties will only enter into an FTA for a win-win situation, it is no question that it is only a matter of time the two countries will come to terms that economic incentives of completing an FTA will outweigh the political rifts between

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