South Korea Expected to Conclude FTAs with Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia in Nov.

The Blue House of South Korea announced on Sep. 22 that the country is likely to sign free trade agreements with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines at the special ASEAN summit scheduled for Nov. 25 to 27 in Busan City.

“We already signed bilateral FTAs with the other two of our top five trade partners in the ASEAN region, that is, Vietnam and Singapore, and the new bilateral FTAs will further refine the South Korea-ASEAN FTA concluded in 2006,” the Blue House explained, adding, “Vietnam became the third-largest export destination for South Korean companies, behind China and the United States, based on the enhancement of free trade that resulted from the bilateral FTA, and we are convinced that our trade with Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will be boosted based on the new bilateral FTAs.”

The South Korean government is in pursuit of the two-way FTAs with the three countries in spite of the FTA with the ASEAN in that more trade with them is necessary considering their rapid economic growth. At present, the rate of liberalization of trade between South Korea and Indonesia in the framework of the South Korea-ASEAN FTA is 80.1 percent in terms of the number of trade items and the percentages are 83.5 percent and 76.5 percent as for its trade with Malaysia and the Philippines, respectively.