South Korea and Vietnam Reach Substantial Conclusion of Bilateral FTA The leaders of South Korea and Vietnam announced yesterday that the two countries substantially concluded a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) which would help further facilitate trade and investment between the two countries. The announcement was made during a summit between President Park Geun-hye and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in the port city of Busan, where a special summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is taking place today and tomorrow. The two countries reached a final agreement on all key issues during their ninth round of negotiations held in Seoul from December 8 to December 10, about 28 months after they initiated talks in August 2012. South Korea and Vietnam plan to complete the talks on technical details and legal scrubbing in order to initialize the FTA in the first half of next year before proceeding with the remaining procedures such as formal signing and parliamentary approval. The bilateral FTA, which covers 17 sectors including goods, services, investment and intellectual property rights, will liberalize 94.7% of Vietnamese products exported to South Korea and 92.2% of South Korean goods shipped to Vietnam in terms of import value. Vietnam is South Korea’s largest investment destination and second biggest trading partner in the ASEAN region.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:00:00 +0000