HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea, China and Japan will likely start their first round of trilateral free trade negotiations during the first half of this year, a Chinese official said Monday, in a move expected to boost trade among the three export-driven countries.

In December, the three countries held their final joint study meeting on the feasibility of a free trade agreement among them.

“If there is no strong opposition from inside South Korea, talks on the China-South Korea-Japan FTA will be officially launched during the first half of this year, in May at the earliest,” an unnamed official from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper China Daily.

“There are still uncertainties with the process of trilateral FTA talks, although China is actively advancing them. However, South Korea seems to be more interested in initiating bilateral FTA talks,” China Daily quoted the official as saying.

The report comes as South Korean President Lee Myung-bak started an official three-day visit to China on Monday.

During the visit, South Korea and China are reportedly set to announce the start of bilateral FTA talks this year.

Lee said earlier that Seoul needs to consider a free trade agreement with Beijing in order to keep up with other nations that have been seeking to expand trade with China.

Free trade talks between Seoul and Tokyo have been stalled since late 2004 mainly because of Japan’s reluctance to lower tariffs on agricultural goods.

South Korea and Japan started preliminary talks to resume the stalled negotiations in June 2008 and have since met four times, including the latest meeting in December 2009.