(MENAFN- QNA) South Korea's Trade Minister Yoon Sang-jick said Wednesday that he expected to see the conclusion of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China in the near future, possibly before the end of November.
The APEC summit, involving both the South Korean and Chinese presidents, is scheduled to be held in Beijing from November 10-11.
The sudden rush to a conclusion of the South Korea-China FTA talks apparently comes as the countries' heads of state have repeatedly called for efforts to strike a deal before the end of the year.
China is South Korea's largest trading partner, accounting for nearly one quarter of South Korea's overall exports in 2013, according to South Korea's News (Yonhap) reported.
The two countries launched their FTA talks in May 2012, but the negotiations had recently hit a stumbling block over the list of products to be liberalized with South Korea wishing to protect its agriculture products and China its industrial market. The latest round of negotiations, the 12th of their kind, were held in mid-July but ended with little progress.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.