Korea and China kicked off second-phase negotiations to conclude a bilateral free trade agreement in Incheon on Monday, in which both sides will tackle market opening and liberalization item by item, Seoul officials said.

The FTA talks between the two countries, which will last until Friday, are the eighth such round. The two sides completed the first-stage talks in September in China where both sides agreed on the basic guidelines, or modality, for the second-phase talks on item-by-item tariff cuts.

Four areas where basic guidelines were agreed upon are products, service and investment, regulations and economic cooperation.

Like in previous talks, Korea’s Assistant Trade Minister Woo Tae-hee and his Chinese counterpart Yu Jianhua are leading their delegations.

The most closely watched aspect of the eighth round will be the highly sensitive list of products. Products on the list, which will take up about 10 percent of the total 12,000 product items discussed in the first stage of talks, will be excluded from tariff removal for as long as 20 years, industry watchers said.

Korea wants to put its agricultural, livestock and fishery products on the list, while the Chinese are seeking to put their less competitive manufacturing goods on the list.

Both sides will also seek an agreement on items for the sensitive list and normal items. Tariffs on products deemed sensitive will be abolished within 10 to 20 years, while duties on normal items will be cut immediately or within 10 years.

As Korea engaged in talks with one of the world’s largest agricultural powerhouses, thousands of Korean farmers gathered outside the talks venue in Songdo to call for the suspension of the negotiations.

In response to rising opposition against a Korea-China FTA, Korea’s chief delegate Woo said there was no fixed timeline for signing the trade pact with China, stressing that the government’s guidelines for the negotiations emphasized protecting highly sensitive products from market opening while maximizing benefits from the pact.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)