Cambodia and the Republic of Korea (RoK) launch the first round of free trade negotiation on July 3. (Photo: Yonhap News) Hanoi(VNA) – Cambodia and theRepublic of Korea (RoK) on July 30 launched the first round of free trade negotiations,according to the RoK’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
During thetwo-day virtual negotiations, the two sides will discuss details on theenvisioned FTA, including expanding the bilateral economic cooperation andopening up the commodity market.
The talks comemore than a year after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen proposed makingpreparations for the trade deal during his summit with RoK President Moon Jae-in in Phnom Penh in March lastyear.
The twocountries have carried out a joint feasibility study over the first five monthsof this year.
RoK Trade MinisterYoo Myung-hee said in a statement on July 9 that amid the spread of COVID-19,it has become more important for his country to expand cooperation withSoutheast Asian countries.
She noted theRoK is pleased to launch FTA negotiations with Cambodia, which can potentiallyrise as the new hub of production and trade in ASEAN, adding that the twocountries will make efforts to come up with a meaningful result within thisyear.
The two-waytrade volume reached an all-time high of 1 billion USD in 2019, up 6 percentfrom a year earlier. That included 697 million USD of the RoK’s shipments, up5.5 percent on-year, according to the data released by the Korea InternationalTrade Association.
The increasewas significant as the Northeast Asian country’s annual exports fell more than10 percent year-on-year in 2019 amid the trade row between the US and China./.
VNA
