The EU and Korea managed to make sufficient progress in the last week on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations to be able to say that we have a deal. There are always formalities to go through – and the example of the US/Korea FTA shows clearly that these are not always pure formalities – but it does look as though we’re there. Certainly at some points in the two years of negotiations it almost looked as though we had run out of steam, but the concept of an agreement between two such important trading partners always made a lot of sense. For both the EU and Korea, once it’s in force it will be the largest FTA (in terms of trade volumes) for both countries.
I haven’t seen the complete deal as yet, but bringing down tariffs in so many areas is bound to increase trade for both sides which will be good news for consumers, whether of Korean electronic goods in the EU, or European beverages in Korea. There are also a wide range of other measures designed to make it easier to trade and do business on both sides. The opportunities the agreement will offer will be a very important area of business for the Embassy in the coming months - and for all the EU Embassies in Seoul, I’m sure.
Posted at 16:21 15 July 2009 by Martin Uden | Comments[2]
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Posted by Ingo-Steven Wais on August 28, 2009 at 12:52 AM KST #
Posted by Ingo-Steven Wais on October 21, 2009 at 11:53 PM KST #