South Korea and the European Union (EU) will hold a meeting next week to discuss the matter of signing their bilateral free trade agreement, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday.
During the two-day gathering in Brussels that starts on Thursday, Choi Seok-young, South Korea's
chief negotiators for the free trade negotiations, and his EU counterpart Ignacio Garcia Bercero will
discuss how to proceed with the signing of the trade pact, it said.
South Korea and the EU reached a provisional deal last year to cut tariffs and lower other trade
barriers.
Both sides had been seeking to formally sign the deal by April this year, but due to procedural
matters, its signing has been delayed. The pact still needs to be approved by South Korea's National Assembly and the heads of the EU's 27-member states to take effect.
If approved, the FTA with South Korea would be the EU's first free trade deal in Asia. The EU was
South Korea's second-biggest trading partner after China and its largest foreign investor in 2008.
For years, South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, has actively pushed to seal free trade deals with its trading partners, including the United States. A deal with the U.S. is awaiting approval from both nations' legislatures.