Korea-Chile FTA 8th Improvement Negotiation... Modernization Discussions on Energy, Minerals, and Digital Economy

The 8th round of improvement negotiations for the modernization of the Korea-Chile FTA, the first free trade agreement (FTA) in Korea, will be held in Seoul for three days starting from the 29th.

The Korea-Chile FTA, Korea's first FTA, began negotiations in December 1999 and came into effect on April 1, 2004. Since then, the trade volume between the two countries has increased fivefold, significantly contributing to the development of economic relations between the two nations.

In this 8th round of negotiations, Korea's lead representative will be Ahn Chang-yong, Director of the Free Trade Agreement Policy Division at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, while Chile's lead representative will be Pablo Yuria, Acting Director of the Bilateral Economic Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Both countries evaluated that the Korea-Chile FTA has greatly contributed to increasing trade between the two nations, and in principle agreed to reflect newly emerging trade norms in the agreement text, considering the changes in the trade environment over the past 20 years. Accordingly, in addition to the goods sector, broad discussions are underway on improvement measures in normative areas not included in the original negotiations, such as cooperation in energy, minerals, and small and medium-sized enterprises, trade facilitation, intellectual property rights, digital economy, environment, labor, gender equality, and anti-corruption.

Director Ahn stated, "Considerable agreements have been reached in some areas during previous negotiations," adding, "In this round, we plan to focus on discussions regarding goods concessions, intellectual property rights, environment, and cooperation in energy and minerals, and we will also strive to make maximum progress in other areas."

The government expects that once the FTA negotiations with Chile, a country rich in mineral resources with the world's largest lithium reserves, are completed, securing mineral resources will become smoother.