Abstract

Among the professions, accountancy services play an especially critical role in the market economy today; thus there have been many World Trade organization (WTO) attempts, beyond the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), to liberalize the market for accountancy services. In response to this international demand, the Korean government announced the liberalization of its accounting market from 2007 and its full opening by 2011. This paper begins with an overview of the Korean accountancy market, including a SWOT analysis focused on the post-financial-crisis era. Next, it shows how the WTO pacts-especially the GATS and the Disciplines on Domestic Regulation in the Accountancy Sector (Disciplines)- and 'Revised Conditional Offer on the Schedule of Specific Commitments' for WTO services negotiations submitted by Korea on May 31, 2005 are used to eliminate these domestic regulatory barriers to international trade in accountancy services. Finally, the paper anticipates both the positive and the negative implications of accountancy market liberalization in Korea following from the removal of existing obstacles to cross-border trade. AS the first sector to be disciplined under the GATS, the liberalized accountancy sector is likely to become the model for other professional services such as law, health, engineering and architecture. Hence this study can have significant implications that extend beyond the field of accounting.