AP News, May 7th, 2007
South Korea and the European Union were set to launch free trade talks on Monday, a deal both sides said would boost bilateral commerce and complement efforts to forge a global trade pact.
"The Korea-EU FTA will provide an excellent opportunity for Korea to become the East Asia FTA hub linking Europe, Asia and the United States," South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said at a press conference with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on Sunday.
Negotiating teams were to meet Monday in Seoul for the first round of actual give and take, although discussions have been ongoing since 2003.
Mandelson said bilateral free trade agreements do not contradict efforts to forge a multilateral deal under the World Trade Organization, but helped fill key gaps.
"They add to the sum total of world trade and they reach into areas and to heights of trade opening that cannot be achieved in the current round of multilateral talks," he told reporters.
South Korea, fresh from a landmark agreement with the United States last month, has been aggressively seeking deals, forging a group accord with nine of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as smaller countries such as Chile.
Kim said over 50 percent of global trade volume occurs among countries that have reached free trade agreements, while foreign trade accounts for nearly 70 percent of South Korea's economy.
Mandelson said, however, that the ultimate prize remains a multilateral WTO agreement under the ongoing Doha Development Round of talks _ named after the Qatari capital where they were launched in 2001.
"I see any bilateral agreement between us as a complement to the DDA, not an alternative to it."
The Doha effort has stalled mostly due to disagreements over rich nations' refusal to slash farm subsidies and poor countries' reluctance to grant greater access to their markets.
Top trade representatives from six key WTO members last month proposed at a meeting in New Delhi a new end-of-year deadline to complete negotiations. The talks have missed several deadlines already, the last being December 2006.
South Korea and the EU did nearly US$80 billion (euro59 billion) of trade last year. The EU is South Korea's second-biggest trading partner after China. The EU is the biggest foreign investor in South Korea.
If successful, an EU free trade deal would be South Korea's biggest, exceeding that with the United States.
South Korea is seeking to increase exports to the EU of automobiles, textiles, electronics, movies and music, Kim said, as well as access for South Korean professionals such as architects and nurses.
Mandelson said the EU would be looking to increase exports of autos and gain greater access to South Korea's service sector.
