As much as the Republic of Korea pushes for various free trade agreements, it has done little to educate its population on the benefits and inevitability of free trade.
Korea’s smart phone market is good example. Today 5 million South Koreans use smart phones, making up 10 percent of total phone users. The world mind share leader in 3G and later smart phones has been Apple’s iPhone.
When I looked into iPhone and Samsung Galaxy smart phone components, I was startled to discover how much the two phones have in common. Since these component creators have their manu-facturing centers located around the world, it was impossible from my exami-nation to determine if, say, a German component had been manufactured in Germany, Malaysia, China or elsewhere.
In other words, it is not an entirely fair description to say that an iPhone is an American phone or a Galaxy is a Korean device.
This is not simply a reflection of Korean manufacturing. It represents how the real world operates. The ultimate losers are the national interests and companies that misguided bureaucrats try to foster and protect.
As Korea and other formerly developing companies have already discovered, manufacturing centers can be surprisingly mobile. Today, China dominates global manufacturing, but tomorrow the next leading manufacture centers could be India or even Vietnam and Thailand. As these kinds of wrong-headed policies work their unintended influences, technology and innovation will naturally migrate to friendlier environments.
South Korea, being a dynamic society, has repeatedly led by example. It needs to use this spot-lit opportunity to call for more than just trade liberalization. Korea should advocate better recognition of how already incredibly integrated the world has become. Korea should publicly pledge to better educate its citizens on how the 21st century effectively operates - and why narrow-minded nationalism is both antiquated and damaging to everyone’s interests.
Tom Coyner President, Soft Landing Consulting