Yoo Myung-hee

Yoo Myung-hee (, born 5 June 1967) is a South Korean politician who served as the Director General of Free Trade Negotiations of South Korea from 2019 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold the position. Over the past 25 years, she worked in various government agencies since she passed the Korean state civil servant exam in 1991. She is also noted as being the final two candidates in the 2020 World Trade Organization leadership race. As the beginning of her career coincided with the ongoing Uruguay Round negotiations at the WTO, Yoo felt that Korea at this time was in urgent need of trade experts. Backing herself to play a potential role in this respect, Yoo applied for a position at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) in 1995 and started working at the WTO Division.

Yoo has reflected that at the time of the Uruguay Round negotiations, she witnessed various "disputes and conflicts", which motivated her to represent her country in trade negotiations and devote her life to representing Korea's position. She also noticed that South Korea was the only country among the WTO member states which was not represented by any women in its delegation team, which prompted her to apply for a position at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Yoo at this time, felt the need to gain legal expertise in order to better understand trade, and she went on to study for a Juris Doctor degree at Vanderbilt University Law School. She was later admitted to the New York State bar in 2003.

She subsequently served as the Director for the FTA Policy Division, and was in charge of the Services and Competition Working Group during the Korea-US (KORUS) FTA negotiations. During the negotiations, the US delegation jokingly remarked that it was unfair that while they did not understand Korean law well, Yoo was very knowledgeable when it came to US law. As Minister for Trade, Yoo played a key role in the conclusion of text-based negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2019, providing viable alternatives to reach a common ground among participating countries at varying levels of development.

In addition, she has concluded the Korea-UK FTA in 2019, taking into consideration various Brexit scenarios into the agreement. She also concluded the Korea-Indonesia CEPA that featured a strong chapter on bilateral cooperation.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yoo introduced in June 2020 the "Post COVID-19 Trade Policy" to reset Korea's trade policy in response to changes in the international trade environment. In this initiative, she emphasized international cooperation and rule-setting in particular, in light of advancing the digital economy and recognizing and embracing the evolving global value chain for better recognition and utilization by stakeholders and industries.

Nomination to the World Trade Organization

In June 2020, the Republic of Korea officially nominated Yoo as the country's candidate for the Director-General of the World Trade Organization and Yoo officially declared her bid to run for the election.

However, given the election of Joe Biden to the US presidency and in the face of widespread support for her rival Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Harvard-trained development economist and former Managing Director of the World Bank, Nigerian Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yoo withdrew her bid on February 5, 2021. Yoo's withdrawal follows an announcement by the WTO which said in October 2020 that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had garnered more support than Yoo from the WTO's 164 member states.

In August 2021, Yoo retired as trade minister after 29 years in public service. She also serves as a senior adviser (non-resident) for Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Personal life Yoo is married to Jeong Tae-ok, a former civil servant and politician who served as a National Assembly member and spokesman of the main opposition party. She has one son and one daughter.