Participant Biographies

Choi Byung-il

Choi Byung-il

Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Lunch and Book Launch: The Battle of Bretton Wood

Dr. Choi is a professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University. Prior to joining the GSIS in 1997 as a founding faculty, Dr. Choi was a trade negotiator representing the Korean government. He started his negotiating career at the Korea-US telecommunication talks (1990-1992). He was also the Korean chief negotiator for the historic WTO basic telecom negotiations (1994-1997), and played a key role in making the agreement. Professor Choi’s research interests include international trade, corporate policy, trade and development, and conflict resolution. His book, the Success and Failure of Trade Negotiations of Korea (2004), earned him the Korean Academy of Arts and Sciences Award. His book, The KORUS FTA: Against the All Odds (in Korean, 2006) was a national best-seller. He has served on many governmental committees and advised major Korean companies. He is now the President of the Korean Association of Negotiation Studies, and also of the Free Trade Academia. Dr. Choi received a B.A. in economics from Seoul National University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.