Trade between China and Republic of Korea goes up

BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral trade between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) jumped 12.1 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2017 as trade cooperation continued to strengthen, data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce showed.

In the 11-month period, trade volume between the two countries totaled 253.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

So far, there have been 63,000 ROK-funded projects in China and more than 71.6 billion U.S. dollars of investment by ROK businesses, said MOC spokesperson Gao Feng.

The robust cooperation is partly the result of a free trade agreement (FTA) between China and the ROK, which has been effective for nearly two years and generated mutual benefits. The two sides have carried out three rounds of tax reductions since the bilateral FTA went into effect at the end of 2015.

The two countries are preparing for the second round of talks on the FTA, which will be focused on services and investment and will result in a negative list, said Gao.

"China is willing to expand economic and trade cooperation with the ROK to jointly build and advance reciprocal bilateral ties," he said.

The two countries still have huge potential in collaboration under the Belt and Road Initiative, trade facilitation and industrial capacity, Gao said. Enditem