Trade chief vows to reflect industry views in Korea-China FTA service talks

Park Jeong-seong, chief trade negotiator at South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said Friday the government would do its utmost to reflect industry views in the ongoing follow-up negotiations on services and investment under the Korea-China free trade agreement.

Park made the remarks at a meeting with companies in the film, OTT, performance, gaming and tourism sectors, held at the CJ ENM Center in Mapo-gu, Seoul.

The meeting was organized to review the current state of K-content and tourism companies' entry into the Chinese market, identify the difficulties they face and discuss negotiating strategies that could benefit those industries.

Since the Korea-China FTA took effect in 2015, the two countries have conducted follow-up negotiations on services and investment under agreed guidelines, launching the process in March 2018. Seventeen rounds of official talks have been held, with the most recent running Oct. 12-16.

The Korea-China summit held in Beijing in January gave momentum to the negotiations. President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at the time to work toward meaningful progress within the year, and the two countries have since been accelerating discussions.

Bilateral goods trade currently stands at around $270 billion, while services trade amounts to only about $38.8 billion — a services share of 14.2 percent, well below the global average of 23.8 percent. There have been persistent calls to expand market access in order to broaden the trade structure beyond goods into services.

Industry representatives said Korean content enjoys strong competitiveness and high demand in China, but that this has not translated into actual corporate revenue or exports, and called for improvements to the business environment.

They also proposed that the follow-up FTA negotiations address discriminatory regulations that domestic companies face in China, eliminate policy uncertainty, and ensure transparency and speed in content review and approval procedures.

"We will do our best in the Korea-China FTA service and investment follow-up negotiations to ensure that industry views are reflected to the greatest extent possible," Park said.