Pulse - 06 November 2025
Korea, UK set for final push on upgraded free trade pact
By Ji Hye-jin and Chang Iou-chung
South Korea and the United Kingdom are set to begin talks next week to finalize an upgraded Free Trade Agreement (FTA), focusing on business-friendly rules of origin and digital trade standards.
According to industry and diplomatic sources on Wednesday, a UK delegation led by Adam Fenn, chief negotiator at the Department for Business and Trade, is in Seoul this week for preliminary talks on remaining issues in the Korea-UK FTA.
The two sides are expected to launch a week-long main negotiation session next week, with a final agreement likely to follow soon after.
The two countries aim to modernize the Korea-UK FTA, which was initially signed at the same level as the Korea- European Union (EU) pact following the UK’s exit from the EU. The UK is Korea’s sixth-largest trading partner and its third-largest investor as of 2024.
After Brexit, Korea and the UK signed a bilateral FTA in 2019 replicating the Korea-EU terms, which took effect in 2021. As new trade priorities emerged, including gender, digital commerce, and the bioeconomy, the two governments launched upgrade negotiations in January 2023.
The negotiations cover about 20 chapters.
Key sectors such as services and investment entered preliminary coordination last week to narrow differences ahead of the main session.
The talks are not expected to include new market-opening measures. Instead, negotiators are working to simplify rules of origin to make them easier for companies to apply. Eased rules are expected to facilitate tariff-free exports and streamline trade between the two markets.
Both sides have also agreed to extend through the end of this year a temporary rule that allows products made with EU-sourced components to qualify as Korean-made. Once the new FTA is finalized, updated origin rules are expected to take effect next year.
“If rules of origin are relaxed for sectors of interest to our industries, it will help boost exports,” said a trade official.
Digital trade expansion is another priority.
As of 2022, 72 percent of UK service exports to Korea, worth 2.8 billion pounds ($3.65 billion), were delivered digitally, underscoring the sector’s role in bilateral commerce. Officials say the two sides are also discussing ways to strengthen Korean content’s access to the UK market. Both governments aim to conclude the upgraded FTA by the end of the year.
Korea’s trade authorities have been broadening market access through bilateral deals, recently signing an FTA with Malaysia and accelerating the second phase of talks with China to navigate U.S. trade barriers.