Korea, Gulf states to begin FTA talks
MySinchew | 2008.07.03
Korea: Korea, Gulf States To Begin FTA Talks
SEOUL, KOREA: South Korea and the Gulf Cooperation Council will hold their first round of talks for a free-trade agreement in Seoul next week, seeking to establish a basic approach for negotiating the envisioned deal, officials said Wednesday (2 July).
"We will need to organise the basic categories to be covered in the negotiations and draw up a rough draft of the agreement in the upcoming talks," said Ahn Ho-young, Seoul’s deputy minister for trade.
Korean and GCC negotiators will hold talks from 9 to 10 July.
The GCC, formed in 1981, is comprised of six Arab states of the Persian Gulf, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The trade bloc cooperates to meet economic and social objectives.
According to Ahn, many countries want an FTA with the GCC but the Arabian trade bloc still lacks sufficient infrastructure. The GCC, however, has some the world’s fastest growing economies, thanks to the oil boom and rich natural gas reserves, raising demand for construction and investments.
On the Korea-EU FTA minister-level talks held in Paris this week, Ahn said that both sides sought to work out differences on the usual major issues, such as technical standards for automobiles, and country of origin, as well as access to the services market.
"Both sides generally sought to examine the current progress and they discussed measures to resolve differences," Ahn said. According to the official, progress in negotiations at the executive level had peaked during the seventh round held in May in Belgium. "But we’re not yet at the stage of revealing substantial progress achieved at the ministerial-level," Ahn said.
Automobiles have been a major stickler in the bilateral talks. The EU is trying to persuade Korea to adopt international technical standards, as the current conditions also hamper EU car exports.
The world’s largest economic bloc has been pressing Korea for an agreement on a similar level to the FTA between Korea and the United States signed in June 2007. (YOO SOH-JUNG/ The Korea Herald/ ANN)
