South Korea will prioritize the conclusion of a free trade agreement (FTA) with
China over a possible trilateral free trade deal that further encompasses Japan,
Seoul's top envoy to Beijing has said.
"We would like to accelerate
bilateral free trade talks with China, and then enter into negotiation of a
trilateral free trade agreement among South Korea, China and Japan," Lee
Kyu-hyung, the South Korean ambassador to China, said in a recent meeting with
Chinese media outlets, according to local news reports on Friday.
Lee
expected South Korea and China will be able to speed up in their FTA talks when
South Korea's presidential election is over. The election is slated for Dec.
19.
In May this year, the two neighboring countries announced the
launch of formal free trade negotiations, expecting the talks to take two
years.
China is the largest buyer of South Korean-made goods and has
contributed to Seoul's sizable trade surplus in recent years, while South Korea
is China's third-largest trading partner after the United States and
Japan.
Bilateral trade reached US$188.4 billion last year. Both
countries are expecting the volume to top $300 billion in 2015.
Meanwhile, South Korea, China and Japan declared last month the start of free
trade talks aimed at boosting their trade despite territorial tension in the
Northeast Asian region. They said they will kick off negotiations over the
three-way free trade deal next year.
The ambitious three-way pact, if
realized, would create one of the world's largest markets, as the three nations
account for 20 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), 17.5 percent
of all global trade, and 22 percent of the global population.
The
three nations' push for their free trade agreement came as the region is still
mired in territorial disputes and unsettled historical legacies.
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have sunk to a record low as Tokyo renewed its
claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo after South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak made an unprecedented visit to the East Sea islets in
August.
Japan has experienced a similar row with China over a group of
East China Sea islets.
Free trade talks between Seoul and Tokyo have
been stalled since late 2004, mainly because of Japan's reluctance to lower
tariffs on agricultural goods.
South Korea already has concluded FTAs
with 45 partners, including the United States, the European Union and the
Association of the Southeast Asian Nations.