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In that meeting,... finance Minister Hyun also said Seoul will continue to push for
more bilateral trade pacts with Southeast Asian countries... as part of the government's
drive to improve the trading environment for small and mid-sized companies.
But concerns still linger about Korea's seemingly insatiable appetite for free trade deals.
Our Laah Hyun-kyung reports. It's been ten years since Korea signed its
first bilateral free trade agreement with Chile.
Since then, the trade volume between the two countries has increased more than four-fold
topping seven billion U.S. dollars last year. The Korean government has been on a blitz
signing many more FTAs over the last decade... with the most recent concluded negotiation
being Seoul's trade pact with Canada. The local automobile and auto parts industry
will likely benefit the most when the Canada deal takes effect.
The Korea-U.S. FTA will welcome its two-year anniversary on Saturday... but opinions about
whether the Korean economy has benefited from the much contested deal over the past two
years... have been mixed. Last year, the government said Seoul's trade
surplus with Washington jumped 44 percent compared to before the deal was ratified.
But some industry experts say improved exports to the U.S. were on the back of a recovery
in advanced economies, rather than the bilateral trade deal.
It remains to be seen whether the government and experts will be able to evaluate the economic
effects of the Korea-U.S. deal with one voice this year.
Another trade deal drawing much attention is the Korea-China FTA.
The tenth round of negotiations will take place in Korea this month.
The draft for tariff concessions on highly sensitive items -- mostly being agricultural
products from Korea -- has been exchanged... and will be discussed in detail at the upcoming
talks. Although analysts estimate Korea's GDP will
increase by up to 3 percent in the ten years after the deal is signed,... skeptics say
the bilateral pact will devastate Korea's agricultural sector.
Those for- and against- the government's initiative to sign more free trade deals continue to
lock horns... and its still unclear whether the government's on-going FTA negotiations
will help or harm the Korean economy. Laah Hyun-kyung, Arirang News.