South Korea, China and Japan will likely start their first round of trilateral
free trade negotiations during the first half of this year, a Chinese official
said Monday, in a move expected to boost trade among the three export-driven
countries.
In December, the three countries held their final joint
study meeting on the feasibility of a free trade agreement (FTA) among
them.
"If there is no strong opposition from inside South Korea, talks
on the China-South Korea-Japan FTA will be officially launched during the first
half of this year, in May at the earliest," an unnamed official from the Chinese
Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper China
Daily.
"There are still uncertainties with the process of trilateral
FTA talks, although China is actively advancing them. However, South Korea seems
to be more interested in initiating bilateral FTA talks," China Daily quoted the
official as saying.
The report comes as South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak started an official three-day visit to China on Monday.
During the visit, South Korea and China are reportedly set to announce the start
of bilateral FTA talks this year.
Lee said earlier that Seoul needs to
consider a free trade agreement with Beijing in order to keep up with other
nations that have been seeking to expand trade with China.
Free trade
talks between Seoul and Tokyo have been stalled since late 2004 mainly because
of Japan's reluctance to lower tariffs on agricultural goods.
South
Korea and Japan started preliminary talks to resume the stalled negotiations in
June 2008 and have since met four times, including the latest meeting in
December 2009.