Professor Inkyo Cheong is a leading expert in international trade. He previously served as Vice President of Inha University and is currently a professor in the Department of International Trade.

Over the past five years, he has held important public positions in Korea. From January 2024 to June 2025, he served as Korea’s Minister for Trade. Prior to that, he was a member of an economic advisory group to the President of Korea, where he chaired the Economic Security Subcommittee and contributed to the development of Korea’s economic security policies. Earlier in his career, he served as President of KOSTI, a public institution, and as Auditor of the Korea Foundation.

As Minister for Trade, Professor Cheong engaged in tariff and economic security negotiations with the United States and participated in multilateral trade meetings such as the WTO and APEC. He also worked on Korea’s accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), a plurilateral agreement in the field of digital trade, and led digital trade negotiations with many countries. In addition, he significantly improved Korea’s trade and investment policies, and during his tenure Korea achieved record-high export performance and foreign investment attraction.

Since the late 1990s, Professor Cheong has participated in Korea’s official FTA negotiations with Chile, Japan, Singapore, ASEAN, the United States, and other partners. His research and teaching cover a broad range of international trade issues, including WTO trade policy, Korea-U.S. trade relations, and East Asian economic integration. He has also provided advice to trade policy authorities and business organizations, and has been active in international forums. Through newspaper columns and broadcast appearances, he has actively expressed his views on current domestic and international trade policy issues.

Professor Cheong has served in numerous other roles, including Presidential Special Envoy to the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2022; President of academic associations in the field of international trade, including the Korea International Trade Association and the Korean Association of Negotiation Studies; Editor-in-Chief of academic journals such as Korea Trade Review, Journal of Korea Trade, and Journal of International Trade and Logistics; Head of an evaluation committee of the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, which oversees 26 government-funded research institutes; Outside Director of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA); advisory committee member for government ministries related to industry and trade; legislative advisory member of the National Assembly; Research Fellow and Head of the FTA Team at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy; and Secretary-General of the East Asia Vision Group (EAVG).

He has published numerous books and academic papers in Korea and abroad on international trade, including FTA and Trade Policy, East Asian Economic Integration, and East Asian Regionalism.