South Korea and China agreed to classify sensitive items and handle them
separately in their free trade negotiations, Seoul's trade ministry said
Friday.
During the three-day-long second round of formal talks that
ended Thursday on South Korea's southern island of Jeju, both sides also
discussed the scope of the deal and how to set up working groups on each
segment, according to the ministry.
"Both sides will work to agree on
definitions of sensitive items in the future," a trade official said.
In early May, the two countries announced the launch of formal free trade
negotiations, expecting the talks to take two years.
The neighboring
countries earlier agreed that the talks on a free trade deal will proceed in two
phases, with the handling of sensitive items and the scope of the trade
agreement to be mainly discussed first.
Agriculture and fisheries are
considered to be the most sensitive sectors for South Korea, while China
categorizes its manufacturing industries, which include the automobile,
machinery and oil sectors, as sensitive.
China is South Korea's
largest trading partner, with bilateral trade expected to reach US$300 billion
by 2015.
Since 2008, South Korea and China had held a series of joint
feasibility studies on a possible free trade deal and exchanged views on
sensitive issues.
The two countries agreed to hold their third round
of FTA talks in China next month, according to the ministry.