Korea and China have agreed to carry the Korea-China Free Commerce Settlement (FTA) Joint Committee within the close to future. This represents an acceleration of the second-phase negotiations of the Korea-China FTA, particularly the companies and funding negotiations. The 2 international locations additionally agreed to proceed communication for the sleek introduction of key provide chain objects equivalent to uncommon earth parts.
On Dec. 12, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Sources introduced that Minister Kim Jeong-kwan and Chinese language Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao held a Korea-China commerce ministers’ assembly in Beijing, China. The assembly occurred roughly one month after the bilateral assembly held in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on the event of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) assembly on Nov. 1. This marks the primary time in roughly seven years since June 2018 {that a} minister of commerce, trade and sources has visited China for a bilateral assembly.
Throughout the assembly, each side mentioned follow-up measures for the agreements reached on the Korea-China summit on Nov. 1 and explored financial and commerce cooperation measures between the 2 international locations. The Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Sources defined that “Minister Kim and Minister Wang agreed to proceed the excellent restoration momentum of bilateral relations shaped by the Korea-China summit and to considerably contribute to the restoration of individuals’s livelihood economies.”
First, each side agreed to strengthen cooperation to increase Korea-China commerce, which has remained stagnant since attaining its largest scale ($310.4 billion) in 2022, and to advertise mutual funding. Particularly, each side plan to barter service commerce growth measures primarily based on the “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Strengthening Service Commerce Cooperation” concluded following the current summit.
The ministry said, “Either side agreed to carry the Korea-China FTA Joint Committee within the close to future to evaluation the FTA implementation standing and discover measures to enhance implementation,” including that “they agreed to speed up the Korea-China FTA companies and funding negotiations to determine a basis for increasing service commerce and funding.” The 2 sides additionally exchanged opinions on their respective main considerations.
Provide chain cooperation may even proceed. The ministry introduced, “On condition that the availability chains of each international locations are carefully linked, we agreed to proceed communication for the sleek introduction of key provide chain objects equivalent to uncommon earth parts,” and “primarily based on the Korea-China export management dialogue, we agreed to help easy commerce of key minerals equivalent to uncommon earth parts by means of energetic utilization of the final license system.”
Moreover, each side agreed to actively pursue native financial revitalization cooperation. Korea plans to increase cooperation from present coastal regional governments to China’s central-western and inland areas, whereas China will dispatch an funding survey staff to Saemangeum to determine a brand new native cooperation mannequin. Funding cooperation revitalization measures primarily based on Korea-China industrial cooperation complexes had been additionally mentioned. After concluding the assembly, each side signed the “‘Key Cooperation Issues between Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Sources and China’s Ministry of Commerce for 2026” and promised easy operation of cooperation channels.
In the meantime, Minister Kim additionally held a gathering with Korean corporations working in China on Dec. 11 to take heed to their difficulties. He visited Xiaomi’s electrical car manufacturing facility, a consultant manufacturing synthetic intelligence transformation (AX) firm in China, to watch China’s manufacturing innovation websites.
