<Summary of Research Paper> March 2004
Energy Cooperation in Northeast Asia
A Study on Harmonization between
Multilateral and Bilateral Energy Cooperation in Northeast Asia
Prof. Hoon Paik
Department of International Relations ChungAng University, AnSung
New Asia Economy and Technology Federation
Summary 1
Summary
○ The multilateral form have adaptive and even reproductive capacities which other institutional forms may lack. At core, multilateralism refers to coordinating relations among three or more states in accordance with certain principles. That is to say, the issue is not the number of parties but the substantive or qualitative characteristic of multilateralism that concerns us.
○ In Europe, a large number of multilateral groupings are involved in shaping the continent's collective destiny, However, in Asia-Pacific there is no such arrangement at work.
○ Successful cases of multilateralism in practice generate expectations of "diffusive reciprocity." That is to say, the arrangement is expected by its members to yield a roughly equivalence of benefits in the aggregate and over time.
○A brief historical survey will yield a standard typology of institutional roles of multilateralism: defining and stabilizing international property rights, solving coordination problems, and resolving collaboration problem. In specific, people can reduce the transaction costs of coordination problem by engaging in multilateral relations. Thus, careful examinations of roles played by multilateralism can produce a useful conduit for energy cooperation in Northeast Asia.
○ Despite the fact that both Korea and Japan share similar concerns over their energy issues, inter-governmental cooperation between the
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two countries has remained undeveloped for the most part. The majority of Japanese energy dialogues have been undertaken with energy exporters located outside Northeast Asia, including Indonesia, Australia and various Middle Eastern countries, with the objective of securing the stable trade of oil and gas. By contrast, the energy policy dialogue between Japan and Korea has fallen place within relatively limited context of multilateral energy cooperation via the IEA and APEC.3)
○ Similarities are found in many aspects of energy market in Japan and Korea, such as high import dependency of energy supplies, and also heavy reliance on the middle east. However, the integrated Japanese and Korean energy market would make the two a top client for Middle Eastern Oil, leaving the US and EU behind.
○ Thus, the central issue is to identify the possible benefits of such a market integration, and in the process, attempting to answer "how market integration can contribute in achieving policy challenges in the countries?" Following the understandings we have from this study, one can suggest the harmonization of market system both in government and industry levels.
○ The energy market integration of Japan and Korea based on appropriate principles can serve as an effective way of multilateralistic approach to an energy cooperative body in the Northeast Asian region.
3) 橋本道雄, “日韓エネルギ〡市場統合: その可能性と効果“, ECT, 2004年.
