The president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, with Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung. (Photo: ASEAN)
SOUTH KOREAMonday, December 22, 2014, 03:40 (GMT + 9)
After a recent summit in Busan with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, the two countries virtually concluded free trade negotiations.
Vietnam and South Korea are on the brink to conclude talks on other technical issues and are likely to sign the trade pact in early 2015, Le An Hai, deputy head of the Asian Market Agency of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade announced.
Some Korean agricultural produce, such as rice, chili peppers, onions and green tea have been left out. Nevertheless, import duties on Vietnamese fishery products and tropical fruit will be abolished. This will put more pressure on the Korean agricultural and fisheries industries.
The two countries had maintained free trade relations through the Korea-ASEAN FTA. However, they started separate talks in August 2012 as the Korea-ASEAN FTA has brought less tangible progress than Korea's FTAs with the U.S. and the EU.
In the last meeting, both nations declared a de facto conclusion of the free trade agreement between the two countries, The Korea Economic Daily reports.
As a result, the rate of liberalization of the Vietnamese market will rise by 6 percentage points (worth USD740 million) to 92.2 percent from 86.2 percent under the Korea-ASEAN FTA.
On the other hand, the liberalization ratio for Korea will rise by 3 percentage points (worth USD170 million) 94.7 percent from 91.7 percent under the Korea-ASEAN FTA.
In addition, Korea will grant a duty-free status to the imports of shrimp of up to 15,000 tonnes (worth USD140 million).