[Pleasant FTA] Sommelier, a New Profession Created by FTAs

These days, when you go to a restaurant, you often see people swirling large, beautifully rounded glasses and savoring the aroma of wine. That is thanks to the large-scale influx of relatively inexpensive Chilean wine that suits Korean tastes well. As the number of wine drinkers has grown, more and more restaurants now employ staff with the unfamiliar title of sommelier. In English, that would be something like a wine consultant, but sommelier is the French term for someone whose job is to introduce and recommend wines. Because the title sounds foreign, one might assume they are foreigners, but most are Koreans who have fallen in love with wine. In other words, a new type of job is being created for Koreans.

The jobs created by inexpensive Chilean wine do not stop with sommeliers. Wine bars that have sprung up here and there are looking for workers. It is also clear that many jobs are being created in the process of importing wine.

As this shows, when affordable, high-quality products flow in through free trade, new consumption emerges, and with it new jobs are created.

Free trade also creates jobs through another channel. It tends to lower overall prices. Assuming consumers continue to consume the same amount as before, they will have extra money left over. They will spend that money somewhere, and production will increase wherever it is spent, creating new jobs.

Of course, free trade does not only increase employment. As wine consumption rises, consumption of soju, spirits, and beer may decline. If that happens, jobs related to the production and sale of those beverages will naturally decrease. Likewise, imports of Chilean grapes could reduce the production of Korean grapes and lead to job losses among grape farmers. But that is only a theoretical possibility. If overall income rises through an FTA, then along with increased imports, the output of existing producers may also increase. The fact that grape production actually increased after the 2004 FTA with Chile clearly shows that the notion that imports and domestic production must move in opposite directions is a mistaken fixed idea.

Even if, as theory suggests, free trade does eliminate some jobs, both theory and historical experience show that it creates even more new ones.

Original title: [유쾌한 FTA ] FTA가 만들어낸 새로운 직업 소물리에

Author: Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

Date: 2007-06-20

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=20&idx=10690