Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Korea and GCC hold 6th round of talks for FTA

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on October 21 that the 6th round of Korea-GCC FTA negotiations will take place through October 24-28 in Seoul. Led by MOTIE’s chief negotiator Kwon Hye-jin, Korea’s delegation is composed of officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF), the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), the Financial Services Commission (FSC) among other relevant government bodies. The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) date2022-10-24

Korea and Oman discuss trade and energy infrastructure cooperation

Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun met with Khalifa bin ali Al Harthy, Undersecretary for Diplomatic Affairs at Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on October 20 at the Lotte Hotel Seoul and discussed investment, energy infrastructure, renewable energy, green hydrogen cooperation and requested Oman’s support for World EXPO Busan 2030. date2022-10-21

Korea and Oman discuss trade and energy infrastructure cooperation

Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun met with Khalifa bin ali Al Harthy, Undersecretary for Diplomatic Affairs at Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on October 20 and discussed investment, energy infrastructure, renewable energy, green hydrogen cooperation and requested Oman’s support for World Expo Busan 2030. Despite the pandemic impact, Korea-Oman trade is recently growing, recording USD 4.5 billion this year as of September, a historic high in five years. With respect to LNG, Oman is Ko date2022-10-21

Trade Minister holds 2nd Exports Assessment Meeting

Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun presided the second meeting for exports assessment with relevant institutions’ and industries’ representatives on October 6 at the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) to announce the launching of Exports Situation Room (ESR) and assess Korea’s trade.   The trade chief gave an opening message and discussed recent trade issues and forecasts per sector to seek measures for vitalizing exports and improving the trade balance.   The date2022-10-06

National Assembly ratifies ROK-Israel and ROK-Cambodia FTAs

Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun announced on September 27 that the National Assembly has ratified Korea’s FTAs with Israel and Cambodia, respectively. The ROK-Israel FTA was finalized in August 2019 after six official negotiation rounds, and submitted to the National Assembly this January. The ROK-Cambodia FTA was finalized in February 2021 after four official negotiation rounds and submitted to the National Assembly this February. All necessary processes on Korea’s part are now compl date2022-09-29

7th round of ROK-Ecuador SECA negotiations

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on September 20 that the seventh round of negotiations for ROK-Ecuador SECA (Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement) will be held through September 20-October 5 via videoconferencing. The bilateral SECA negotiations were restarted in Seoul after a six-year hiatus, and the talks saw substantial progress in narrowing the opinion gap despite a rather long break. The seventh round of negotiations will be held entirely via videoconferen date2022-09-20

Korea attends 2nd RCEP Joint Committee Meeting

Trade, Industry and Energy FTA Negotiations Director General Lee Kyung-sik attended the 2nd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Joint Committee Meeting held on August 25 via videoconferencing with 14 RCEP member states’ representatives to discuss RCEP implementation system.   In his opening remarks, Director General Lee stated that South Korea will actively engage in the effective implementation of support for RCEP utilization of SMEs and cooperate with relevant insti date2022-08-26

Korea attends 2nd RCEP Joint Committee meeting

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on August 25 the launching of the 2nd Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Joint Committee Meeting, which was attended by approximately 40 persons from 14 member states via videoconferencing. The Korean government delegation is led by Lee Kyung-sik, MOTIE’s Director General for FTA Negotiations and includes officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) and Korea Customs Service (KCS). This meeting is th date2022-08-26

MOTIE holds Industry Conference in response to CHIPS Act

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang held the Semiconductors, Cars and Batteries Industry Conference (hereinafter “Conference”) in Seoul on August 25 to seek public-private joint countermeasures in response to the U.S.’ recently passed CHIPS Act (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act) and the Inflation Reduction Act. The CHIPS Act enables maximum 25 percent investment tax credits to companies making new investments in U.S. semicond date2022-08-25

Korea and Vietnam hold Ministerial talks for economic cooperation

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang held talks with Vietnamese counterpart Minister Nguyen Hong Dien on the occasion of the latter's visit to South Korea. Mentioning the two countries’ diplomatic ties establishment in 1992, Minister Lee stated that Vietnam is one of South Korea’s four major trading partners after China, the U.S. and Japan, while also being the largest trade and investment partner in the ASEAN region. South Korea's trade with Vietnam amounted to $ date2022-08-02