1995 Van Fleet Award Honoree
CHULSU KIM
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
Chulsu Kim joined the World Trade Organization as its deputy director-general on July 1, 1995. Before coming to Geneva, Kim pursued a long and distinguished career with the Korean Government in the field of trade policy making and international trade negotiation.
Kim received a B.A. in political science from Tufts University in 1964 and later an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Massachusetts. After completing graduate school, he taught Political Science at Smith College and St. Lawrence University.
For more than 20 years, Kim has been professionally concerned with international trade policy as a Korean government official. In 1973, he joined the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and subsequently served in various positions. As assistant minister from 1984 to 1990, Kim was Korea’s chief trade negotiator, leading many of Korea’s trade negotiation teams in both bilateral and multilateral consultations.
In 1987, he was selected as chairman of the MTN Negotiating Group in the GATT Uruguay Round and served for four years in that position. As such, he was one of the handful of key officials who, in effect, led the negotiations.
In 1990, Kim was appointed commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), a post which carried the rank of vice minister. While at KIPO, he gained a reputation as a crusader for stronger protection of intellectual property rights-not always a popular cause in Korea.
The next year, he was named president of the Korea Trade Promotion Corporation (KOTRA), a state-run organization that seeks to expand Korea’s international trade. In a departure from tradition, he redirected KOTRA’s trade promotion effort to better serve the needs of Korea’s small and medium-size firms, which had often been neglected in the past.
In February 1993, the newly-inaugurated President Kim Young Sam chose Kim to be his first minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. In that capacity, Minister Kim played a prominent role in formulating and implementing the administration’s “New Economy Plan,” which aims to deregulate and “internationalize” the Korean economy through wide-ranging reforms. He represented Korea at the 1993 and 1994 ministerial meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group (APEC) and at the formal signing of the Uruguay Round Final Act in Marrakesh, Morocco, in April 1994.
In December 1994, Kim resigned from the cabinet, and, shortly thereafter, was appointed to the newly-created post of ambassador for international trade by President Kim Young Sam.
Chulsu Kim was born in Seoul on January, 26, 1941. He is married and the father of two children.
