China And South Korea FTA Formally Signed 90% Commodities Will Achieve Zero Tariff

Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce of China and Minister of industry and Commerce resources of Seoul, Mr. Yin Xiang Zhi, respectively signed the "free trade agreement between the People's Republic of China government and the Republic of Korea government" on behalf of the two governments in South Korea. This is China's FTA thus far signed, covering the most extensive and involving the largest volume of trade in the country.

After the entry into force of the agreement, more than 9 of the commodities between China and Korea are expected to enter in the next 5~20 years.

Times.

Since the agreement reached between China and South Korea on economic and trade ministers' joint study on Sino Korean free trade agreement in September 2004, the Sino Korean FTA agreement has been formally signed. It is called a ten year sword.

In this process, there are several key nodes: after 8 years of research and consultation, in May 2012, China and ROK officially announced the start of the FTA negotiations; in July 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited South Korea and reached a consensus with the president of South Korea, park Geun hye, and decided to speed up the negotiations.

In February 25, 2015, China and ROK completed the initials of all the Sino Korean FTA agreements, and the Sino Korean FTA negotiations were completed.

According to the agreement, the liberalization rate of trade in goods between China and South Korea is over 90% in terms of tax level and 85% in trade volume.

There are 17 areas of investment and rules, including e-commerce, competition policy, government procurement, environment and other "twenty-first Century economic and trade issues".

Huang Wei, an associate researcher of the Institute of world economics and politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the China Youth Daily reporter that there is a complementary relationship between China and South Korea in some areas. Many Chinese people are keen to buy Korean food, clothing, cosmetics, and so on. Korean consumers also have demand for many commodities in China.

Therefore, after the Sino Korean FTA comes into force in the future, people in both China and South Korea will be able to buy their products at a cheaper price, which is undoubtedly good news for consumers.

The signing of the FTA between China and South Korea is also a blessing for Chinese and Korean enterprises.

Huang Wei added: "for the enterprises and manufacturers, the signing of the China South Korea FTA means a broader market.

With the signing and entry into force of the FTA, some institutional arrangements involving bilateral trade will be further straightened out, and the cost of participating in economic activities will be reduced. "

From a higher level of national strategy, China and South Korea will also benefit from this FTA.

For South Korea, this is undoubtedly one of the largest and most important FTA agreements signed by the Republic of Korea.

In an article published by Yonhap, Yonhap pointed out that China has been the largest importer of Korean goods in the world so far, and the goods exported from Korea to China surpassed the 1/4 of Korea's total exports in 2014.

With the signing and implementation of the FTA between China and Korea, South Korea will not only expand its trade map, but also in the next 10 years, this FTA is expected to raise the actual GDP of South Korea by 0.96% and create 53 thousand and 800 new jobs.

Han Youde, director of the China Daily of the central daily, said in an article written in February this year that if the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China in 1992 was an opportunity to upgrade the Korean industry, then the signing of the FTA between the two countries in 2015 could be regarded as another opportunity for the development of Korean industry.

This is a way for Korea to continue to share "China's development dividend" and the real reason for the signing of the FTA between China and Korea.

Huang Wei believes that for China, in addition to economic gains, "another significance of the FTA is that it means China has taken a solid step in the formulation of rules".

"The Sino Korean FTA rules are drawn up by China and South Korea.

We know that the source of a country's influence is actually established by rules.

In the past, we were more accepting rules made by others. Now this is changing.

China will also face more rules making process in the future.

Therefore, the negotiation process and final conclusion of the FTA between China and Korea is a very good experience acquisition process for China. "

Huang Wei said.

Huang Wei also said that the signing of the FTA between China and South Korea will also play a catalytic role in the regional economy.

Although many countries in the Asian region have been promoting regional economic integration for many years, the economic development level of the economies in the region is not the same. Compared with the Americas and Europe, the degree and difficulty of regional economic integration in Asia are much larger.

China and Korea are both economies in the Asian region. The signing of the FTA will undoubtedly speed up the progress of other Asian trade arrangements.

From this perspective, the significance of the signing of the FTA between China and South Korea may be more profound than the agreement itself.

Huang Wei said.