중남미

This paper presents an ex-ante assessment of the FTA between Mexico and South Korea that has been under negotiation since 2007. It seeks to go beyond previous studies on this issue by including a more comprehensive analysis of trade and investment flows and a more rigorous appraisal of the trade potential between the two economies by means of a gravity model of trade fitted on a panel dataset for the 21 APEC member economies. The aim was to determine whether this agreement can be beneficial for both countries and, in passing, to contribute to the development of a more objective rationale for this purpose. Overall, the results point to the conclusion that an FTA can in fact be beneficial for both partners. On the other hand, the methodology adopted proves to be pertinent as a first step in the development of such rationale.