"Thanks to Trump, moving to law firms after retirement" ... 'Trade experts' officials and professors receive consecutive love calls

Choi Byung-il, Emeritus Professor at Ewha Womans University, Moves to Law Firm as Advisor
Trade Experts in High Demand Amid Trump-Era Trade Risks
Companies, Law Firms, and Political Circles Rush to Recruit and Seek Advice

(From left) Choi Byung-il, Honorary Professor at Ewha Womans University; Yoo Myung-hee, former Chief Trade Negotiator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy; Yeo Han-gu, former Chief Trade Negotiator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy; Kim Hyun-jong, former Deputy Director of the National Security Office at the Blue House. Provided by Asia Economy DB and Yonhap News Agency.

As President Trump's tariff pressures spread across all fronts, domestic political and business circles are making every effort to secure trade experts. The overlap of a regime change period and the emergence of trade issues has drawn attention from various organizations to former officials and academics in the diplomatic and industrial sectors.

According to diplomatic and academic sources on the 15th, major domestic law firms and companies are accelerating the recruitment of trade experts to respond to global supply chain instability and trade pressures originating from the United States. In particular, as practical response capabilities become crucial due to export controls, environmental regulations, and subsidy policy changes in major countries, individuals with field experience are being reappraised.

Choi Byung-il, a prominent academic figure in the field of international trade and an emeritus professor at Ewha Womans University, was recently recruited as an advisor to the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee and appointed as the director of the Trade Strategy Innovation Hub. He participated as the Korean representative in the Uruguay Round service negotiations in the 1990s and was deeply involved in the World Trade Organization (WTO) basic telecommunications negotiations. Having served as president of the Korean International Trade Association and the Korean International Economic Association, he currently holds the position of vice president of the United Nations Association of Korea.

Yoo Myung-hee, former head of the Trade Negotiation Headquarters at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy during the Moon Jae-in administration, was reappointed this month as an outside director of Samsung Electronics. She also serves as a consultant at Kim & Chang law firm. Former head Yeo Han-gu is also active as a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) in the United States and regularly participates in domestic and international trade seminars.

Recruitment of trade experts is also active in the political arena. Kim Hyun-jong, former head of the Trade Negotiation Headquarters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade during the Roh Moo-hyun administration and former deputy director of the National Security Office at the Blue House, was appointed in February as a foreign affairs and security advisor to former Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung. It is known that he had extensive contacts with key Trump figures in the United States even before President Trump's inauguration. According to diplomatic sources, Kim was reported to have conducted proactive unofficial diplomacy by personally visiting and contacting key figures linked to the Trump campaign.

Recently, efforts by political and business circles to prepare for trade risks have also led to organizational restructuring. The law firm Yulchon established the 'Trump 2.0 Response Center' to prepare for U.S. trade pressures, and HwaWoo formed a trade and industry team to enhance practical response capabilities to U.S. export controls and tariff policies.

Gwangjang established the International Trade Research Institute to proactively respond to changes in the multilateral trade system. Major groups such as SK and Hyundai Motor are expanding trade-related organizations within their affiliates or building cooperative systems with external advisory groups to respond to export regulations and subsidy policy changes. There is a clear trend of moving away from internal legal and strategic department-centered responses within companies to agile responses to policy changes through dedicated trade organizations.

A trade industry official said, "Companies are desperately demanding trade expertise that can respond to real-time institutional changes," adding, "There is an atmosphere where negotiation strategies and lobbying capabilities by industry directly translate into corporate competitiveness." Unlike the past when trade personnel were mainly concentrated in the public sector, there is now a rapid increase in demand for experts who can cover both practical work and strategy in the private sector. Some analysts also point out that insufficient training of successors and a strong concentration in certain departments such as business administration have driven up the value of trade experts even further due to a shortage of supply.