The 4th official negotiations for improving the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United Kingdom will take place. This negotiation will be held in London from March 10 to 14, focusing on 13 key areas including services, supply chain, digital, and bio-economy.
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the Korean delegation, headed by Kwon Hye-jin, FTA negotiator, and the British delegation, led by Adam Fenn, Deputy Director of the UK’s Department for International Trade, will comprise over 60 representatives from both countries.
South Korea and the UK signed the South Korea-UK FTA based on the South Korea-EU FTA in 2019, which went into effect in 2021. However, with increasing trade, investment, and economic cooperation between the two countries post-Brexit, there is a perceived need for a more advanced FTA incorporating new and improved regulations in emerging trade sectors such as gender equality in trade, digital trade, and bio-economy, prompting the commencement of improvement negotiations in 2023.
During this 4th negotiation, detailed discussions will be held across 13 divisions, including goods agreement, supply chain, digital trade, government procurement, and bio-economy. Through these negotiations, both nations aim to make substantial progress and lay the groundwork for the conclusion of the FTA improvement negotiations.
Kwon Hye-jin, FTA negotiator, emphasized, “With increasing uncertainty in the domestic and international trade environment, the need to expand trade and investment between South Korea and the UK, as well as to strengthen cooperation between companies in new promising fields, is greater than ever. We will focus on establishing business-friendly rules of origin and setting digital standards and cooperation in bio and supply chains through the FTA improvement negotiations.”
Attention is drawn to whether Korean companies will be able to access the UK market under more favorable conditions through this negotiation.
