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South Korea and China officially declared the start of bilateral free trade talks in a recent joint statement. After his recent
meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming, South Korea’s Trade Minister Park Tae-ho issued a joint statement announcing the beginning of formal FTA negotiations.
“We will finally embark on free trade agreement(FTA) negotiations with China after a prolonged period of preparation. This
is a historic moment for both countries,” said Park.
The joint statement underlined the advantages of the bilateral deal, noting it would “bring actual benefits to the business sectors and the people of both nations and thus contribute to integration of East Asia.”
The FTA talks between the countries will consist of largely two phases. In the first phase, both nations will set the general framework and modality of tariff exemptions by discussing a list of products (such as agricultural and fisheries products) and determining whether each item should enter tariff concessions or be classified as highly sensitive items that need to be protected from open market competition.
The second phase of talks will build on the agreements reached during the first phase and discuss details regarding countries of origin, investments, services, intellectual property rights, and dispute settlement methods.
“We decided to break down the talks into two separate phases due to increasing concerns that the agricultural and fisheries sectors will be harmed by opening free trade with China,” explained a trade official. “We will try to exclude as many agricultural products from the tariff concession list as possible during the first phase of talks.”
The bilateral trade between Korea and China amounted to $220.6 billion last year. China is Korea’s largest trading partner, acc
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