Senior trade officials from South Korea and the European Union (EU) will hold a meeting next week to check on preparations and processes for the implementation of their bilateral free trade accord, Seoul's trade ministry said Thursday.

   During the meeting in Seoul on Tuesday, Choi Seok-young, Seoul's chief negotiator for the free trade talks, and his EU counterpart Ignacio Bercero will discuss overall issues related to the free trade agreement (FTA), scheduled to take effect on July 1, officials said.

   In April, South Korea's parliament approved the free trade pact, which was signed in October of last year. In February, the European Parliament also ratified the accord.
Under the deal, Seoul and Brussels will eliminate or phase out tariffs on 96 percent of EU goods and 99 percent of South Korean goods within three years after the accord takes effect. They have also agreed to abolish tariffs on most industrial goods within five years of the deal taking effect.

   Overall, the deal is expected to boost bilateral trade between South Korea and the EU by as much as 20 percent in the long term, according to earlier estimates by the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).

   KIEP said the free trade accord with the world's largest economic bloc will help boost South Korea's exports by $11 billion and its economic growth by 5.6 percent while creating up to 253,000 jobs over the long haul.

Source: Yonhap News (June 16, 2011)