S Korea, EU to wrap up first week of free trade talks
Yonhap - 2007/05/11
S. Korea, EU to wrap up first week of free trade talks
SEOUL, May 11 (Yonhap) — South Korea and the European Union were to wrap up their first round of free trade talks Friday with Seoul’s negotiators expressing satisfaction over the week-long negotiations, but conceding sensitive issues were barely touched.
Negotiators have been meeting in Seoul since Monday to tear down tariffs and other trade barriers between South Korea, Asia’s third-largest economy, and the EU, the world’s largest trading bloc.
Deputy Trade Minister Kim Han-soo, South Korea’s chief negotiator, told reporters on Thursday both sides have exchanged a "basic stance" in two of the most difficult areas, the environment and labor.
"We also reached an understanding that both sides won’t use the issues of environment and labor as a tool of trade restrictions," Kim said, adding that the talks have been going at a faster pace than he originally expected.
In principle, both sides have agreed on removing tariffs on 95 percent of bilateral trade, Kim said earlier. South Korea’s average tariff is 11.2 percent, far higher than the EU’s 4.2 percent, according to Kim’s ministry.
Still, the first round was aimed at setting parameters for an agreement and identifying sensitive issues, officials said. The next round of negotiations is set for the week of July 16 in Brussels.
South Korea wants the EU to soften its anti-dumping rules and countervailing duties, while Brussels requests Seoul ease regulations on imported cars and toughen measures to protect intellectual property rights.
Kim’s EU counterpart, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, declined to comment on the substance of talks. The two chief negotiators will brief reporters at 4 p.m. on Friday.
The EU is South Korea’s second-largest trading partner after China. Two-way trade between South Korea and the EU totaled US$79.4 billion last year, and Brussels is the largest foreign investor in Seoul, with $5 billion invested in 2005 alone.
Free trade talks with the EU came a month after South Korea reached a landmark free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. Many economists here said a deal with the U.S. would give an edge for South Korean negotiators in EU free trade talks.
On Thursday, South Korea Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said the EU invited South Korea to begin free trade talks in February, after originally rejecting Seoul’s proposal in 2004.
"In 2004, when we proposed the EU to hold FTA talks, the EU side refused to do so, with a reply that ’Do you really know the initial "F" in FTA?’" the trade minister said in a speech in Seoul, suggesting that his country had been shunned by the EU because of its reluctance to open its economy at that time.
