As President Lee Myung-bak mentioned in his inauguration speech, liberalization is a trend that cannot be back-pedalled, and a free trade agreement(FTA) is one of the most essential means for increasing the national wealth. Thus, the new administration will continue to promote FTAs as the top trade policy priority. Although FTA policy has been one of the top priorities among trade policy agenda since the beginning of the administration led by President Kim Dae Jung, as of now, trade covered by FTA still remains at 9% of its total trade.  The coverage will slightly exceed 20%, once the Korea-U.S. FTA comes into effect. However, considering that trade among FTA partners take up 50~55% of the world's trade, Korea still has a long way to go. 

With this in mind, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade(MOFAT) has decided upon the following concerning President Lee Myung-bak's FTA objectives:

First, it will continue to exert efforts to ratify the Korea-US FTA at the earliest date possible.
Second, it will focus on the currently undergoing FTA negotiations to be swiftly concluded, and
Lastly, it will continue to expand the FTAs with major trading partners.

In terms of implementing these objectives, the Ministry plans to pursue FTAs with advanced economies in order to enhance competitiveness of Korea's industry and develop economic system. Also, by promoting the possibility of concluding FTAs with emerging economies, Korea hopes to increase market access opportunities with great potential. Lastly, by pursuing FTAs with countries that have a stronghold in each continent or are rich in resources, Korea plans to expand its export markets and foothold in energy and resources. If this three-pillar approach goes well as planned by 2012, which will mark the end of the current administration, Korea's trade figure under the FTA is expected to exceed the world's average of 50~55%.

To elaborate on Korea's ongoing FTA negotiations. it can be stated that much progress was achieved at the 6th round of Korea-EU FTA negotiations, which was held in January. However, as some issues in core sectors such as tariff offers, rules of origin, and the standardization of automobile regulations have not been dealt with, Korea plans to exert much effort in these areas in the next round of negotiations, which are expected to be held in April. If successful, the conclusion of the Korea-EU FTA may be achieved at an early date.

Besides, Korea is still engaged in talks with India, Canada and Mexico, as well as negotiations on investment agreement with ASEAN. As the ASEAN negotiations are being held in sequence, item by item, the agreement on trade in goods has already come into effect, while the agreement on trade in services was concluded in November  2007. Currently, investment is the only remaining area where talks are ongoing. While negotiations with India and Canada have nearly reached a conclusion, certain core issues have not yet been resolved. In the case of Mexico, the first round of negotiations were successfully held, yet the date for the second round of negotiations have not yet been settled. Due to Mexican businesses' concerns over the competitiveness of Korea's industries, there has been a delay in exchanging tariff offers on goods.

The first round of negotiations with the GCC, which consists of six countries, is to be end around May of this year. Currently, MOFAT is planning to pursue working level negotiations with the GCC to set the framework for tariff offers. This would include factors such as deciding whether or not to exchange agreements beforehand as well as negotiation structures. However, due to the fact that the GCC is currently pursuing FTAs with various other countries, it has been rather difficult to set a concrete schedule with the GCC.

Besides, a number of other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Peru have expressed their interest in starting FTAs with Korea. As such, the appropriate domestic measures will be taken after reviewing the economic feasibility of pursuing FTAs with these countries in accordance with the three aforementioned implementation strategies.