1st LD: China, S. Korea sign FTA as new growth engine

China and South Korea signed a free trade agreement (FTA) here on Monday, sharing views that the free trade pact will serve as an all-round cooperative platform for both governments and companies to seek new growth engines.

Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Sang-jick signed the bilateral FTA in Seoul, three years after the two countries began talks in May 2012.

After Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Seoul in July 2014, negotiations on the pact made rapid progress. President Xi and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye announced a conclusion of substantive negotiations on the deal in Beijing in November 2014.

The deal, written in English, Chinese and Korean, will be implemented after getting approval from parliaments of both countries.

Under the accord, South Korea will eliminate tariffs on 92 percent of all products from China within 20 years after the implementation while China will abolish tariffs on 91 percent of all South Korean goods.

The FTA, the largest bilateral free trade deal for China in terms of trade volume, covered 17 areas, including trade in goods and services, investment and trade rules as well as e-commerce and government procurement.

During the talks on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Gao and Yoon shared views that the China-South Korea FTA will expand bilateral trade and investment, and that it will serve as an all- round cooperative platform for the two countries to seek new growth engines.

The two ministers exchanged views about various issues, including a regional economic integration via the trilateral FTA between Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The RCEP is a multilateral FTA that will include China, South Korea, Japan and 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as India, Australia and New Zealand. Endi