Push for Colombia’s FTA
JoongAng Daily, Seoul
Push for Colombia’s FTA
12 July 2011
Yonhap/Chief trade officials from Korea and Colombia agreed to closely cooperate for an early conclusion of their free trade negotiations, Seoul’s trade ministry said yesterday.
During a meeting earlier in the day, Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and his Colombian counterpart, Sergio Diaz-Granados, shared the view that a bilateral free trade pact will serve as an important tool to boost bilateral relations, according to the ministry.
The two countries have held four rounds of free trade negotiations so far after launching talks in December 2009. The two sides held their latest inter-session meeting last February.
The two countries’ bilateral trade nearly doubled to reach $1.82 billion in 2010 from a year earlier, with Korea’s exports to the South American country reaching $1.39 billion, according to the ministry.
Korea’s main exports include cars and electronic goods, while imports include coffee and mineral resources, such as coal and nickel, from Colombia.
Seoul is seeking to intensify economic cooperation with Latin American countries in a bid to diversify its trading partners and encourage its firms to advance into the region’s resource-rich markets.
Korea has a free trade agreement with Chile that took effect in April 2004, and it struck a free trade deal with Peru last August, the latest trade pact that could pave the way for Asia’s fourth-largest economy to tap deeper into the South American region. Korea is also in free trade negotiations with Mexico
