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Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy CI. / Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

South Korea and China are launching follow-up negotiations to expand market opening in the services and investment sectors under their bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 31st that it will hold the 16th round of follow-up negotiations on services and investment under the Korea-China FTA in Beijing, China, from this day through the 4th of next month.

The negotiations bring together delegations of around 30 officials from both nations, led by Kwon Hye-jin, Deputy Minister for Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Chen Chao, Director-General of the Department of International Trade and Economic Affairs at China's Ministry of Commerce.

When the FTA took effect in 2015, South Korea and China agreed to conduct follow-up negotiations to raise the level of liberalization in the services and investment areas. In accordance with the agreement, the two sides launched the first round in March 2018 and have held 15 official negotiating rounds to date.

Through the follow-up negotiations, both countries plan to discuss measures to expand the sectors open in each other's service markets and enhance the clarity and predictability of market entry conditions. The objective is to expand bilateral trade—which has centered on manufactured goods—into the services sector and lay the groundwork to foster investment.

In addition, the leaders of both countries agreed in January to work toward achieving meaningful progress on the services and investment follow-up negotiations within the year. High-level engagements and discussions on accelerating the talks subsequently continued, including the Korea-China Commerce Ministers' Meeting in March and talks between the Minister for Trade and China's International Trade Representative in June.

Kwon Hye-jin, Deputy Minister for Trade Negotiations, said, "Amid continuing uncertainties in the domestic and international trade environments, concluding the follow-up negotiations on services and investment under the Korea-China FTA can expand bilateral service trade and investment," adding, "We will do our utmost to achieve stable negotiation outcomes that offer practical benefits to the business activities of our companies."

                                                                                                          Kim So-young