Law firm BKL(Bae, Kim & Lee) (represented by Attorney Lee Jun-gi) announced on the 5th that it has recruited Choi Byeong-il, an honorary professor at Ewha Womans University and considered a domestic expert in 'international trade,' as an advisor. This is part of their plan to strengthen expertise in the field of international trade and regulation in line with the inauguration of the second Trump administration.
Advisor Choi is regarded as an authority in Korea's international trade sector. He graduated from the Department of Economics at Seoul National University and obtained his master's and doctoral degrees in economics from Yale University in the United States. In 1997, he was appointed as a professor with the inauguration of the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University. He has served as the president of the Korean Association of Negotiation Studies, the Korean International Trade Association, and the Korean Association of International Commerce, and is currently the vice president of the United Nations Korean Association. He was also selected as an international member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, becoming the fourth in Korea and the first as an economist.
Advisor Choi was active as Korea's representative in the Uruguay Round service negotiations and the World Trade Organization (WTO) basic telecommunications negotiations in the 1990s. He is credited with successfully transitioning Korea's telecommunications market from a monopoly system to an open and competitive system. Last February, he visited the U.S. as part of KORCHAM's 'U.S. Trade Outreach Delegation (Economic Delegation)' to support the process of discussing cooperation measures between Korea and the U.S. Additionally, in January, he published a book titled 'Trump Again,' analyzing predictions for the second Trump administration.
Advisor Choi will lead BKL's 'Trade Strategy & Innovation Hub'. He will collaborate with key expert teams such as the BKL Global Future Strategy Center, the International Customs Team, and the Cross-Border Compliance Team to provide comprehensive advice on trade policy and negotiations.