China and South Korea have signed a new bilateral free trade agreement after two years of negotiations. The agreement should include help boost small and medium sized South Korean companies in the field of textiles and high-tech electronics on the Chinese market.
This is the ninth signed by the two neighbors whose trade amounted to 228.9 billion dollars in 2013.
The Association of Trade and Industry South Korea "welcomes the agreement to open free trade with its main trading partner arm." "We hope that this agreement with China, the world's number one and number two trade economically speaking, will be the future engine for our industry and our economy," said the president of the Association Han Duck- Soo.
The agreement covers a total of 17 areas and for the first time the finance, telecommunications and e-commerce. Automobile production and the rice is excluded from the agreement. But South Korean farmers have already called for his removal.
Still on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Cooperation Forum Asia-Pacific yesterday, China and Russia have further strengthened their energy cooperation, thanks to a new agreement between the Russian giants Rosneft and Chinese CNPC.
In May, they had signed a mega-contract to supply Russian gas to Beijing, estimated at $ 400 billion over 30 years.
