S Korea, China make progress in FTA talks

SEOUL, June 2 (Xinhua): South Korea and China made a progress in the 11th round of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA) held in China last week, Seoul's trade ministry said Monday.
The 11th round was held for five days to May 30 in Meishan city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
South Korean delegation was headed by assistant Commerce Minister Woo Tae-hee and the Chinese side was led by Wang Shouwen, assistant minister of China's Ministry of Commerce.
The new round discussed all areas such as goods liberalisation, service, investment, regulations and cooperation.
During the talks, the two sides exchanged the second offer for goods liberalisation after trading the first one in December 2013. Seoul and Beijing also exchanged the second request for goods liberalisation, which stipulated items of great interest.
The South Korean trade ministry said that much headway was made in negotiations about written agreements for goods and trade remedy, noting in-depth negotiations were made about how to liberalise the service and investment sectors.
For the service sector, the two sides exchanged the first request for liberalisation to express respective areas of interest.
Much progress was also made in negotiations about written agreements for the regulations and cooperation, the ministry said, noting agreements were almost reached on competition and e- commerce.