South Korea pushes for trade deal
South Korea pushes for trade deal
South Korea wants to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Viet Nam as soon as possible to further enhance economic ties between the two nations, a South Korean official has said.
Jang Mi Yeon, deputy director of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) division of South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said the two countries met in September for the first round of FTA negotiation.
Jang spoke during a seminar on the Korea – ASEAN FTA co-organised by South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) yesterday in HCM City.
South Korea and ASEAN, of which Viet Nam is a member country, already have an FTA in force since 2007.
"ASEAN is getting more important to Korea compared to other regions," she said, adding that Korea wants to establish bilateral FTAs with ASEAN members to promote relations in a wide range of fields with each ASEAN country, including Viet Nam.
Korea considers Viet Nam one of most important trade partners in ASEAN, according to Jang.
"Tariffs under the Korea-Viet Nam FTA would be lower than those under the Korea-ASEAN FTA," said Park Il Yeong, director of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of Korea's FTA Promotion and Policy Adjustment Authority.
Won-Chul Shin, deputy director at the FTA Promotion and Policy Adjustment Authority from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of Korea, said an FTA was seen as an effective way to deal with the slowdown in the economy. Since the global recession in 2008, more FTAs have been signed.
As of October, the number of FTAs has reached 346, according to the World Trade Organisation.
An FTA abolishes tariff and non-tariff barriers, while, from the consumers' perspective, a wider variety of products and services at more reasonable prices becomes available.
"In fact, if you take a look at the change in bilateral trade since the effectuation of Korea-ASEAN FTA, the volume of trade was US$66.4 billion a year before the FTA came into effect. After five years, total volume increased to $127.4 billion," he said.
In 2006, Korean investment in ASEAN countries was about $3.6 billion. In 2010, it was $7.1 billion.
Such results can be viewed as the effect resulting from mutual economic cooperation through FTAs and more transparency in investments, he added.
Park said bilateral trade between Korea and Viet Nam had reached more than $8 billion last year.
Viet Nam is the major investment market for Korean enterprises in the steel, urban development and hotel industries, with many large investors such as Posco, Doosan Heavy industries, Kumho and Samsung Engineering doing business here.
Kim Jongsang at the KOTRA's emerging market research team said currently more than 90 per cent of total items are already exempted from tariff owing to the ASEAN-Korea FTA.
vietnamnews
