South Korea and Japan held director-general level talks on a bilateral free trade agreement in Seoul on Monday.
Monday’s meeting was the second to be held by director-general level officials from the two countries since the first round of talks held on Sept. 16 in Tokyo.
At the latest talks, officials from the two countries discussed non-tariff barriers and other trade-related issues, and plans for establishing an environment suitable for reopening the FTA negotiations, Korea’s Trade Ministry said in a press release.
Head of Trade Ministry’s FTA Negotiations Bureau Lee Yun-young (left) shakes hands with Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Economic Affairs Bureau Director-General Takeshi Yagi at Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday. (Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald)
The negotiations over a Korea-Japan FTA first got under way in December 2003, but the talks were halted when the two sides failed to narrow differences concerning the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. The process was resumed in the form of working-level meetings following the summit in April 2008.
The talks were then upgraded to director-general level after the summit meeting between President Lee Myung-bak and Japan’s prime minister at the time, Yukio Hatoyama, on May 29.
By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldm.com)
cheesuk@heraldcorp.com
