Officials from South Korea and the European Union (EU) on Monday gave high marks to a free trade accord between the two sides and said the trade pact will serve as a model for similar subsequent deals.
Seoul and Brussels are set to implement their free trade pact on July 1, which was signed in October last year after more than three years of tough negotiations.
Kim Jong-hoon, South Korea's trade minister, said the free trade pact is a win-win arrangement for both sides.
"Some say that a free trade agreement is kind of a zero-sum game, but I am definitely sure that the deal will bring great benefits to both sides," Kim said at a seminar held here.
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).
The 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.
Trade between the 27-member economic bloc and South Korea totaled US$92.2 billion last year, rising around 17 percent from 2009. The EU
is currently in talks with India and Singapore.
Ignacio Garcia Bercero, who served as the EU's chief negotiator for the free trade negotiations with South Korea, said the free trade pact with South Korea is the EU's most ambitious deal.
"The free trade pact with Korea is the most important free trade agreement that has been negotiated so far by us, the model of the type
of free trade agreement that we would wish to be able to conclude with other Asian countries," Garcia Bercero said.
EU ambassador to Korea Tomasz Kozlowski also said the Korea-EU FTA is a win-win deal to both sides and will bring great benefits to both
EU and Korean businesses, workers and consumers.