冷戰結束後，全球貿易規範（ regime ）因 1995 年世界貿易組織（ WTO ）的成立而出現戲劇化的進展。儘管如此，以 WTO 為代表的多邊主義（ multilateralism ）卻並未能擺脫區域主義（ regionalism ）的糾纏。每當多邊主義遭受挫折時，區域主義就變得活躍起來，就算是在多邊主義正在制度化的時代亦無例外。 南韓過去曾是多邊主義的堅定的信徒，而今則是雙邊主義（ bilateralism ）與區域主義的積極奉行者。美國亦屬此類的變節者。美國先在 1980 年代轉採區域主義的策略，與以色列、加拿大簽署自由貿易協定（ FTA ），其後又在 1990 年代初與墨西哥完成 FTA ，華府的主要目的是為了要促進關稅暨貿易總協定 (GATT) 的烏拉圭回合（ Uruguay Round ）的多邊協商。然而南韓的變節則與美國的動機不同，首爾政府擔心的是區域主義的作法會使南韓在全球市場的市場佔有率重創。在此背景下，智利（ Chile ）成為南韓舉行 FTA 協商的第一個對象國，南韓 FTA 協商的動力自此持續維持迄今，並與更多的貿易伙伴簽署 FT A 。南韓刻正與其主要貿易伙伴如美國、日本與歐洲聯盟（ European Union ）等進行 FTA 協商，擁有龐大市場的中國將會是南韓 FTA 政策的下一個目標，儘管這可能是項難度更高的挑戰。 南韓與智利簽署 FTA 對南韓貿易政策、國際貿易與國內的貿易政治而言有多項重大意義。其中最重要的意義莫過於意味著南韓改變其傳統的貿易政策，從多邊的世界貿易策略轉向雙邊的 FTA 策略。迄今韓智簽署自由貿易協定已逾三週年，本文主旨即在探討韓智 FTA 過去三年的經驗及其對未來南韓與中國 FTA 的意義。

The post-Cold War global trade regime underwent a dramatic progress with the launch of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. It was an achievement reached after almost a half-century effort for multilateralism in international trade. In reality, however, the multilateralism that WTO represents had to go still along with regionalism despite the general expectation that this will wane away soon. It was understood that regionalism had been active largely because the multilateral scheme was not in full strength. Yet it was finally revealed that regionalist approaches die hard even in the era of multilateralist institutionalization. Korea must be an interesting case in that one-time staunch believer in multilateralism turned into an active pursuer of both bilateralism and regionalism. The United States also belongs to this category of converters. US turned to regionalist approach with a free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel and Canada in the 1980s, and then with Mexico in the early 1990s because it attempted to accelerate multilateral negotiations, Uruguay Round (UR) of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). But Korea joined this category not for the sake of such multi-regional interplay, but for the fear of losing its shares in world markets by regionalist discrimination. Korea negotiated its first FTA with Chile , and has maintained the momentum of FTA negotiations by concluding FTAs with more trade partners. While Korea has been negotiating FTAs with major economic powers including Japan , United States , and European Union , China as a huge market will be the next frontier for Korea 's FTA policy while it seems to be an even more difficult challenge. The purpose of this paper is to explore Korea 's FTA experiences with Chile for the first three years, and implications for a Korea-China FTA. Particularly this paper will attempt to show what Korea-Chile FTA has brought to Korea 's foreign economic policymakers, who once looked timid toward opening its doors. In doing this, this paper will first focus on the significance of Korea-Chile FTA, examine its general performance, and then analyze several major issues of Korea-Chile FTA at three years of age, and finally explore its implications for a Korea-China FTA.