Formal Signing Of Free Trade Agreement With South Korea

Canada and South Korea formally signed the free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada in this (2014) year, becoming the first Asian country to sign FTA with Canada. The largest beneficiary will be the Korean auto manufacturing industry, but the FTA will also have an impact on Korean agriculture.

At present, the import tariffs of the Korean automobile plus 6-8% will be reduced to zero tariffs in the next 3 years, which will bring huge positive benefits to the Korean auto industry. According to statistics, in 2013, Korea accounted for more than 40% of its exports to Canada, making Canada one of Korea's top 5 auto export markets.

Benefiting from FTA, there are also household appliances such as Korean auto parts, tires, washing machines and refrigerators. The import tariffs on these exports are also in the 6-8% stage. According to the agreement, the import tariffs on these items may be immediately cancelled or reduced to zero in the next 3-5 years.

Textiles will also fall to zero tariffs in 3 years, which is also a great advantage for most of the textile factories in South Korea.

　　 Canada As the world's eleventh largest economy and one of the world's 8 largest industrial group (G8), the trade volume between Canada and South Korea is relatively small. In 2013, bilateral trade volume was only about $10 billion, and Canada ranked only the twenty-fifth largest trading partner of South Korea.

　　 The Republic of Korea Government officials point out that Seoul expects FTA to expand trade and investment between the two countries. So far, bilateral trade has occupied a large proportion of natural resources and manufacturing industries, and the future is expected to expand to cover services and cultural industries.

The two Koreas have been launched since 2005. free trade agreement After 9 years of negotiations, the agreement was finally signed. So far, South Korea has signed a free trade agreement with 9 of the world's 14 largest economic powers, and the China ROK FTA, which is currently under negotiation, is expected to be signed by the end of 2014.

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Li Zhiliang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of international trade and industry of Malaysia, pointed out that the export volume of textiles in Malaysia in the first half of this year (2014) was 5 billion 800 million MA (about 1 billion 782 million US dollars), which grew by 20.8% over the same period (2013), and the main export products were textile yarns, garments and fabrics.

The main export markets were the United States, Japan, mainland China, territories and Singapore, with an import volume of 4 billion 200 million Ma, which grew by 13.5% over the same period last year. The main imports were textiles and garments, and the main source of imports was China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand.

Malaysia's textile exports amounted to 10 billion 200 million Malaysian dollars last year and its imports amounted to 7 billion 700 million ma. Ma's textile production index reached 108.8 points in the first half of this year, up 12.7% from the same period last year, indicating that the textile and garment industry has been restored to normal and expanded trend by the economic recovery.

Vice Minister Li continued that the Malaysia textile and garment industry had no longer enjoyed the EU general preferential system since January 1st of this year. However, the Malaysia Turkey free trade agreement can still be used to export products to the European Union for tax preferences.

On the other hand, Zheng Wentian, President of the General Chamber of Commerce of the Malaysia clothing department store, pointed out that the recent weakness of the Malaysian currency has directly impacted on the import and export business of the textile and garment industry in the country. In addition, the 6% consumption tax will be implemented in Ming (2015) April 1st, resulting in a weakening of the purchasing power of consumers, a decrease in the sales volume of the operators, and some manufacturers facing the cash flow dilemma. The canal appeals to the Malaysia government to sympathize with the public, such as arranging the financing of small and medium sized enterprises to help the industry bail out.

President Zheng called on the Malaysia government to cancel the import tariff of cloth garments, so as to reduce the cost of doing business and sell cheap goods, so as to attract tourists to purchase, in addition to earning foreign exchange, it also promotes the development of tourism.