Korea and China Resume FTA Services and Investment Follow-up Negotiations, Accelerating Market Opening

16th Round of Negotiations in Beijing

Discussions on Market Opening in Services, Investment, and Finance

Efforts to Improve Conditions for Korean Companies' Market Entry

The Korean delegation led by Kwon Hyejin, Director General of Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, conducted negotiations with the Chinese delegation, including Lin Feng, Director General of the International Affairs Department at China's Ministry of Commerce (Chief Representative), at the 15th Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Services and Investment Follow-up Negotiations held in Beijing, China on June 22. Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Korea and China are launching follow-up negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) aimed at further opening their services and investment markets. With both countries’ leaders having agreed to make meaningful progress in these negotiations within the year, plans are in place to accelerate market opening discussions in the services, investment, and financial sectors.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the "16th Korea-China FTA Services and Investment Follow-up Negotiations" will be held in Beijing, China, from August 31 to September 4.

This round of negotiations will be led by Kwon Hyejin, Director General of Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Chen Chao, Director General of the International Trade Department at China's Ministry of Commerce, as chief representatives. Each side will be represented by a delegation of around 30 officials.

At the time of the FTA's entry into force in 2015, the two countries agreed to conduct follow-up negotiations to improve the level of liberalization in the services and investment sectors. As a result, since the launch of follow-up negotiations in March 2018, a total of 15 formal negotiation rounds have been held.

Through these follow-up negotiations, Korea and China are discussing ways to expand the range of service industries open to each other and to enhance the clarity and predictability of market entry conditions. The goal is to invigorate trade and investment in services and to extend the bilateral trade structure—currently centered on goods—into the service sector.

In particular, negotiations between the two sides have gained momentum this year. The leaders of Korea and China agreed in January to strive for significant progress in the services and investment follow-up negotiations by the end of the year. Since then, discussions on advancing the talks have taken place during the Korea-China ministerial meeting in March and at the meeting between Korea's chief trade negotiator and China's international trade representative in June.

The government plans to accelerate discussions on market opening in the services, investment, and financial sectors during the 16th round of negotiations, with the aim of achieving tangible progress.

Kwon Hyejin, Director General of Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated, "Amid ongoing uncertainties in the global trade environment, concluding the Korea-China FTA services and investment follow-up negotiations could help expand bilateral trade and investment in services. We will do our utmost to achieve stable and practical negotiation outcomes that will directly benefit the business activities of our companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.