S. Korea, Bangladesh launch 5th round of CEPA talks in Seoul

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the fifth round of official negotiations toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Bangladesh will be held in Seoul from Monday through Friday.

A CEPA is a trade agreement that, like a free trade agreement (FTA), covers market-opening measures such as tariff reductions on goods but also encompasses broader economic cooperation areas including supply chains.

About 60 delegates from both countries will take part in the talks, led by Park Geun-o, director-general for trade agreement policy at the ministry, and Ayesha Akther, director of the Foreign Trade Agreement Wing at Bangladesh's Ministry of Commerce, as their respective chief negotiators.

Since declaring the launch of negotiations in November 2024, the two countries have held four rounds of talks and concluded text discussions in four areas: customs procedures, rules of origin procedures, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and technical barriers to trade.

In this fifth round, the two sides plan to resolve key outstanding issues across eight working groups — covering goods, services, investment, rules of origin, digital trade, intellectual property, economic cooperation and general provisions — with the aim of bringing the negotiations to a near-final stage.

Bangladesh, with a population of about 170 million, has sustained average annual economic growth of more than 6 percent since 2000 and is set to graduate from least-developed-country status in November.

"Bangladesh is a key and fast-growing market in South Asia, and concluding a CEPA will help Korean companies enter the South Asian market and diversify their supply chains," Park said. "We will engage actively in these negotiations to resolve as many remaining issues as possible and bring talks to an early conclusion."