| Scrutiny into trade dispute between the United States and South Korea reveals that "non-compliance" is not a voluntary, deviant act of the Other(s) but an involuntary act resulting from the lack of State power and privilege. Within the current trading system, the rules of compliance are unilaterally imposed upon the marginal parties, who must comply unconditionally.; Despite the significance of non-compliance, little attention has been paid to the symbolic meaning represented in the act of non-compliance. The positivistic tradition in negotiation theory has failed to provide knowledge about the non-compliance of the Other(s), disabling the United States from resolving trade conflict effectively.; It is necessary to understand trade dispute and to know how to resolve such disputes. Despite the incommunicability of free trade, its hegemonic enforcement has been assumed. "Free trade," the meta-signifier of trade talk, is constructed out of capitalist desires of dominant Self(s), imposed upon marginal Other(s), and enforced through inter-governmental contact by means of American hegemony. Yet this imposition has not been complete due to the local struggle of the marginal parties.; This study explores trade dispute from a post-modern perspective to provide practical knowledge for resolving trade conflict. Scrutiny into bilateral trade dispute cases reveals that "dispute" is an ideological construct that is historically constructed, imposed, and reproduced by means of cultural practices, a product of postmodernity. It further reveals that trade "dispute" is a discursive formation constructed by the United States' repressed desire to dominate the world in order to fix the imposed trading Order.; Local resistance to such hegemonic imposition is significant due to the institutional limitations of the World Trade Organization. This study employs a cultural identity approach to understand the nature of trade conflict in order to resolve conflict constructively with the deviant Other(s). In doing so, this study explores the nature of cultural identity and its symbolic representation of power to seek alternative means of dispute resolution (ADR) in international trade negotiations. |
