Xinhua, Seoul :
South Korea and Vietnam began the fifth round of negotiations for the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), Seoul’s trade ministry said Tuesday.
The new round of FTA talks will continue through Friday in Seoul from Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The previous round was held in Ho Chi Minh City in March.
At the 2013 summit, the leaders of the two countries agreed to wrap up the negotiations by the end of this year after starting the bilateral FTA talks in November 2012. South Korea has already signed a free trade pact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Vietnam as a member nation.
During the fifth round, the two sides will make an in-depth discussion on goods, services, investment, the country of origin, customs and cooperation, the ministry said.
The ministry said that Vietnam is a major South Korean partner of trade and investment, noting the higher-level bilateral FTA with Vietnam than the one with ASEAN will strengthen the economic and trade relationship between the two countries.
Vietnam was South Korea’s ninth-largest trade partner in 2013, with the bilateral trade reaching 28.26 billion U.S. dollars last year. The Southeast Asian nation was South Korea’s fourth-biggest destination for overseas investment, with investment reaching 1.46 billion dollars in 2013.
