International Trade

Good shoes take us to good places. When I returned to Korea in the seventh grade after having lived abroad for eleven years, adapting to a new environment was not easy. But, to my surprise, it got easier with the help of my Adidas Superstar Sneakers, released exclusively in the United States in baby blue. I became a superstar in school, the new kid from America in style. At the time, Superstar sneakers were a fad among Korean teenagers. My shoes walked me into my new life in Korea.
To the average consumer, product diversity is seen as a way to cultivate a distinctive individual style and pay lower prices as a result of competition. In college, however, as I studied international trade, I came to understand product diversity from a different perspective. Freer and fairer trade, which enhances product diversity, not only allows for greater individual choice, but also benefits nation-states through increased interdependence. I became an ardent believer in free trade agreements as a part of the "virtuous triangle," the notion that liberal theories of democracy, economic interdependence, and international institutions foster international peace and security.
International trade is an important way for Asian countries to engage with the rest of the world. But amid a growing number of regional trade agreements worldwide, concerns about freer trade in both developed and developing countries have also escalated. "Freer trade" is an objective term that can be statistically determined, while "fairer trade" is subjective. My internship at the Commercial Service of the U.S. Embassy, the trade promotion agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has allowed me to gain insights into the subjective aspect of trade. As an international trade assistant for the construction and architecture industry, I have aided export counseling to many small and medium-sized enterprises from both Korea and the U.S. The business atmosphere of Korea, home of the world’s leading manufacturers of...