Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Trade ministers' meeting held prior to MC13

Trade, Industry and Energy Deputy Minister for FTA Negotiations Roh Keon-ki attended the meeting convened on December 11 via videoconferencing prior to the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO)'s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) to discuss and build consensus on major agenda items with the U.S., China, the UK, India and other member countries. Deputy Minister Roh placed emphasis on the need for recovering the multilateral system through the WTO reform as a message that needs to be shared du date2023-12-12

Korea and GCC to accelerate the advancement of bilateral FTA

Director General for FTA Negotiations Chang Sung-gil at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) is leading the Korean delegation in the chief delegate talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to be held through December 11-13 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for advancing negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Korea and the alliance of six Middle Eastern countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. The GCC delegation i date2023-12-11

Korea and Vietnam hold joint 7th FTA Committee & 13th Industrial Committee meetings

Minister Bang Moon Kyu led the Korean delegation in the 7th Korea-Vietnam FTA Joint Committee meeting and the 13th Korea-Vietnam Industrial Joint Committee meeting on December 7 at the Shilla Seoul and discussed with the Vietnamese delegation, headed by Vietnam’s Industry and Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, the major issues for implementing their bilateral FTA, including import controls, updating of country of origin standards, resolving of non-tariff barriers, and agricultural trade, and date2023-12-08

Trade Minister meets with Bulgaria's Economy and Industry Minister

Minister for Trade Dukgeun Ahn met with Bulgaria’s Economy and Industry Minister Bogdan Bogdanov on December 6 in Seoul and discussed measures for stronger economic, trade, investment and industrial cooperation between the two countries. date2023-12-07

Korea and Bulgaria discuss measures for stronger trade and industrial cooperation

Minister for Trade Dukgeun Ahn met with Bulgaria’s Economy and Industry Minister Bogdan Bogdanov on December 6 in Seoul and discussed measures for stronger economic, trade, investment and industrial cooperation between the two countries. Noting that the two countries' collaboration, which used to revolve around photovoltaic power generation, is recently diversifying and expanding to other areas like automotive parts, Trade Minister Ahn said that he looks forward to their future cooperatio date2023-12-06

Korea and China hold 5th bilateral FTA Joint Committee Meeting

Minister for Trade Dukgeun Ahn led the Korean delegation in the fifth Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Joint Committee meeting on December 4 in Beijing to discuss measures for expanding bilateral cooperation in economy, service industries and supply chain with International Trade Representative Wang Shouwen, who led the Chinese delegation. date2023-12-05

Minister holds luncheon conference with Japan's METI Minister

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Bang Moon Kyu and Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi held a luncheon conference prior to attending the 17th MOTIE-METI soccer exchange game on December 2 in Osaka, Japan, and shared views on measures for the two countries’ industrial, trade and energy cooperation. date2023-12-05

Korea and China to strengthen service and supply chain cooperation through FTA

Minister for Trade Dukgeun Ahn led the Korean delegation in the fifth Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Joint Committee meeting on December 4 in Beijing to discuss measures for expanding bilateral economic cooperation. The Chinese delegation was headed by International Trade Representative Wang Shouwen. With this year marking the ninth year since the FTA entered into force, Korea and China are seeing their bilateral trade volume increase 36.5 percent year-on-year in 2023. In commemoration date2023-12-04

Korea seeks measures for development and economic cooperation through EPAs

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) held the “4th New FTA Strategy Forum” on December 1 together with the Korean Association of Trade and Industry Studies (KATIS) to develop negotiation strategies for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) currently being pushed by the Korean government with other countries. An EPA is a trade agreement focusing on strengthening global trade solidarities, enhancing supply chain resiliency for resources like critical minerals and promoti date2023-12-04

Korea and Chile hold 8th official negotiating round for upgrading bilateral FTA

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on November 29 that Korea will begin the eighth official negotiating round for upgrading the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Chile, its very first FTA partner, through November 29 to December 1 in Seoul. Negotiations for the Korea-Chile FTA were first launched in December 1999 and the agreement entered into force on April 1 in 2004, contributing to both countries’ economic growth and increasing the bilateral trade volume five-fo date2023-11-29