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[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] China's Ministry of Commerce announced on the 28th that it held a virtual chief negotiation meeting for the second phase of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Korea.

Through its website, the Ministry of Commerce stated, "On the 26th, additional consultations on market opening, including service trade and investment rules, were conducted with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the negotiations made positive progress."

Photo by Global Times Capture

The Ministry of Commerce explained that the promotion of the second phase of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement negotiations will soon yield substantial results.

The Ministry also added that the second phase of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement negotiations was jointly announced by President Xi Jinping and President Moon Jae-in in December 2017.

Korea and China agreed to conduct follow-up second phase negotiations within two years to further open markets in the service and investment sectors when the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement was enacted in 2015.

However, due to conflicts between the two countries caused by the deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system on the Korean Peninsula in 2016, discussions had not progressed until now.