By Kim Tae-gyu
Korea plans to start administrative procedures which are necessary for completing a free trade agreement (FTA) with China this month.
Deputy Minister of Trade Lee Si-hyung said Wednesday that the ministry will hold a public hearing on Feb. 24 at COEX in southern Seoul, the details of which will be announced soon.
Then, negotiations on the bilateral trade pact are expected to start in spring after public hearings, and seminars and conferences with specialists are held.
``Once the framework and schedule of the FTA are agreed upon with China, formal discussions will start,’’ Lee told a press conference at the ministry in downtown Seoul.
``If the internal processes go without major difficulties, chances are that we could embark on negotiations for the bilateral trade pack by next month.’’
The two countries are believed to be on the same track in that the FTA talks will continue with a two-phased approach ― sensitive items such as farm produce will be first dealt with before general products.
His remarks are in line with those of his boss, Trade Minister Bark Tae-ho, who stressed the significance of an FTA with China in terms of fulfilling the nation’s grandiose target of being a trade hub.
The professor-turned-bureaucrat predicted that the FTA might be a low-level accord but that it will enable Korea to attract investments from industrialized economies.
``The FTA with China might not be a very high-level one. Even so, the agreement will have huge positive implications because Korea can be an FTA hub, thereby attracting investments from advanced countries,’’ he told The Korea Times.
Because FTAs with the European Union and the United States have been or are set to be implemented, he expressed the hope that companies from those countries will establish their Asian head offices in Korea where they can easily tap into China without worries about tariffs thanks to the Korea-China FTA.
The FTA with the EU went into effect last July and the one with the U.S. is likely to go into effect later this month or early next month, according to Bark.
In an interview with other local media outlets, Bark said that talks with China, Korea’s largest trading partner, may begin before this May when summits between the two neighbors as well as Japan are slated.