Hanoi (VNA) – Cambodia and the Republicof Korea (RoK) agreed on July 9 to launch official negotiations for a bilateralfree trade agreement (FTA), paving the way for the RoK, Asia's No. 4 economy,to make further inroads into the Southeast Asian market and boost exports.
According to Yonhap News Agency, theannouncement came more than a year after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Senproposed making preparations for a free trade deal during his summit with RoKPresident Moon Jae-in in Phnom Penh in March 2019.
The two countries have carried out a jointfeasibility study over the first five months of this year.
RoK Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee said in astatement that amid the spread of COVID-19, it has become more important forhis country to expand cooperation with Southeast Asian countries.
She noted the RoK is pleased to launch FTAnegotiations with Cambodia, which can potentially rise as the new hub ofproduction and trade in ASEAN, adding that the two countries will make effortsto come up with a meaningful result within this year.
The two sides are likely to hold their firstround of talks in July.
Their trade volume reached an all-time high of 1billion USD in 2019, up 6 percent from a year earlier. That included 697million USD of the RoK’s shipments, up 5.5 percent on-year, according to thedata compiled by the Korea International Trade Association.
The increase was significant as the NortheastAsian country’s annual exports fell more than 10 percent year-on-year in 2019amid the trade row between the US and China./.
