South Korea and Turkey agreed on key issues such as tariff concessions and
dispute settlement schemes in their free trade talks, Seoul's trade ministry
said Sunday, raising the prospect of the two countries soon concluding their
free trade negotiations.
During the four-day meeting in Seoul that
started on Wednesday, both countries reached an agreement on tariff concessions
and other key issues, while negotiations for service and investment are going to
continue, the ministry said.
"The agreement at the negotiation level
will be reviewed by each side and finalized," the ministry said in a
statement.
Since April 2010, the two countries have held four rounds
of free trade agreement negotiations.
Last month, South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed
in principle to conclude their free trade negotiations in the first half of the
year.
Last year, South Korea exported goods worth US$5.1 billion to
Turkey and imported goods worth $800 million. In 2010, their bilateral trade
reached $4.26 billion.
Currently, South Korea has free trade
agreements with Chile and Singapore as well as similar pacts with the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and India.
A similar free trade
pact with the United States is set to take into effect this week. South Korea
and the European Union (EU) also implemented their free trade deal in July last
year.
The country is actively seeking similar pacts with Canada and
Colombia, among several other countries.
Source Text