ROK hails conclusion of substantive FTA talks with China as future growth engine

The Republic of Korea (ROK) Monday hailed the conclusion of substantive negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China as a future growth engine.

Woo Tae-hee, assistant minister of ROK's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, told reporters here that the ROK-China FTA will enable ROK to secure an opportunity in Chinese market in advance of others, anticipating that it will serve as a new growth engine for the ROK economy.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his ROK counterpart Park Geun- hye confirmed the conclusion of the talks in a meeting Monday on the sidelines of the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) meetings.[Special coverage]

Under the deal, over 90 percent of goods traded between ROK and China will enjoy zero tariffs, accounting for more than 85 percent of the bilateral trade value.

Both countries also agreed to continue negotiations on services trade with a "negative list" approach, and will start investment talks on the basis of the post establishment national treatment and negative list format.

ROK presidential office said it plans to complete the initialing of the deal within this year to sign the final pact early next year. To put the FTA deal into effect, the ROK government should receive ratification from the parliament.

According to the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)'s estimates, the FTA deal would lift ROK's real gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.92 percentage points to 1.25 percentage points over the next five years after the deal comes into force. In the next 10 years, the real GDP would be increased by 2.28 percentage points to 3.04 percentage points.