The free trade agreement (FTA) also known as an international free trade agreement is an agreement made between two countries to reduce trade barriers or tariffs and increase trade with one another. South Korea is a very export oriented economy. Following the Asian financial crisis in the late 90s, exports accounted for over half of its GDP. Its exports mainly consist of displays and memory semiconductors (being the leading producer in the world), ships and automobiles. Its dependence on exports along with a limited domestic market and a rapidly aging population threatens its future growth. Because of this South Korea is constantly pursuing and adapting its trade policies to that of the current trending policies around the world. It is a country that has entered FTAs with numerous trading partners. Through this South Korea (hereafter Korea) has become a significant player in the global markets. The most common and overseer of the majority of all FTA around the world is the World Trade Organization (WTO) multilateral trade regime. It consists of over 150 members and with the implementation of the WTO, topics and fields such as agriculture, environment, services and intellectual property was introduced into the trading system. It is considered a dispute settlement place for it provides case laws for multilateral regulations. Two main principles of the WTO are the Most-Favored-National Treatment (MFN) and National Treatment (NT). MFN prohibits “horizontal discrimination”, which is where one member country discriminating amongst goods and services provided by other member countries (i.e. treating other nations equally). NT prohibits “vertical discrimination”, which is one member country discriminating against goods and services of other member countries in favor of their goods and services (i.e. treating foreign and domestic nations equally). These principles are to ensure that all WTO member countries and their nationals have a certain level of equal rights in internal and external business and economic activities. The WTO and the whole concept of a multilateral trade were considered the norm when it came to international trade amongst nations, but in recent times the phenomenon of Regionalism1 based on Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) is becoming more and more common. This is because specialists from numerous nations doubt the stability and future of the WTO system and the whole concept of multilateralism for it has its limitations in enhancing trade liberalization, whereas FTAs have been proven useful in overcoming these limitations as they allow signatory countries to choose partners that match their specific circumstances. So in preparation nations are looking towards a new paradigm i.e. Regionalism. Along with this trend, Korea is actively adopting to a more diversified negotiating strategy. Korea has signed and also put into force FTAs with numerous nations diversely spread out around the world. When a Korean FTA is signed, is must be approved by the Korean president thereby binding the country to the terms of the FTA2. Before being approved by the president, it also needs parliamentary ratification. Along with the approval from the president representing the domestic legislation, the negotiation process and discussion must also be reported to the WTO where it will then be reviewed and from there on if approved will be announced effective as an international law. When implementing a change in trade policies, relationships among domestic and international interest groups may also be affected. The political motivation of interest groups depends on what they stand to gain or lose. Those who stand to lose should try to block or alter any international agreement, whereas those who may profit should push for its ratification. That is why the involvement of interest groups during the discussions of the FTA process is regarded highly important and necessary. The combination of interest group pressure and parliamentary decision-making process often result in difficulties during the ratification process. Therefore the two main stakeholders in the domestic Korean FTA policy structure are the interest groups and the governmental sector. Korea has numerous existing FTAs and also those in the negotiation stages. These result in the constant change or amendments to Korean domestic laws or may affect their domestic laws in some way. Korea-Chile FTA Korea’s first FTA to be ratified was the Korea-Chile FTA3 which was signed on Feb 1st, 2003 and entered into force on Apr 1st, 2004. The trending expansion of regionalism around the world catalyzed Korea’s pursuit of a Free Trade Agreement. Being a nation which more than 70% of its economy relied on international trade it sensed the need to board the regionalism train for if it did not keep up, Korean companies would be at a disadvantage because of the preferential treatment provided for rival companies in FTA signatory countries, which would eventually