Korea and Chile restart negotiations for upgrading FTA

Trade, Industry and Energy Ministry's FTA Policy Planning Director Ahn Chang-yong headed the Korean delegation for the seventh round of official negotiations to upgrade a free trade agreement (FTA) with Chile on May 22-24 in Santiago.

The seventh round of negotiations were launched subsequent to follow-up consultations between the two countries on the occasion of Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's visit to Chile last October.

Prior to negotiations, delegation head Ahn stated that "the Korea-Chile FTA signed in 2003 was Korea's first FTA, and since then, bilateral trade has grown fivefold and largely contributed to trade expansion," adding that the delegation "will make the utmost efforts so that the Korea-Chile FTA can become a new cooperation platform for responding to supply chain, energy, resource cooperation, digital trade and other facets of the changing trade landscape."

This seventh round has broken the two-year hiatus, as the sixth round was held in October of 2021. Negotiations cover a wide range of relevant topics, including goods, intellectual property, trade facilitation, environment, labor, and gender equality.