South Korea-Eurasia FTA In The Pipeline

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

08 September 2016

The prospect of a free trade agreement between South Korea and the Eurasian free trade bloc has increased after South Korea and Russia called for the swift conclusion of preparatory work for the agreement.

A feasibility study on a potential South Korea-Eurasia FTA has been underway for the past nine months. However, following their meeting at the recent Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Russia leader Vladimir Putin agreed that the study should be concluded at the earliest opportunity so that formal negotiations could begin.

In an earlier address to the South Korea-Russia Business Dialogue, Park said that a South Korea-Eurasia FTA would "open a new chapter for bilateral economic cooperation."

The Eurasian Economic Union is a free trade area consisting of former member states of the Soviet Union, including Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. The bloc's external trade was valued at USD877bn in 2014, with total gross domestic product rated at USD2.2 trillion in the same year.

It was recently confirmed that the Eurasian bloc would begin formal negotiations towards an FTA with China.

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