Business | Economy
South Korea and Gulf states to discuss schedule to remove tariffs
South Korea and six oil-producing countries agreed to discuss when they will scrap tariffs they charge each other in September in order to reach a free-trade agreement by the end of next year.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 12:35 July 11, 2008
Seoul: South Korea and six oil-producing countries agreed to discuss when they will scrap tariffs they charge each other in September in order to reach a free-trade agreement by the end of next year.
Asia's fourth-biggest economy finished its first round of trade negotiations yesterday with the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The group, South Korea's fifth-largest trading partner, consists of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait.
The second round of discussions will be held in Riyadh in September, when they will propose a schedule to remove tariffs, South Korea's trade ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.
South Korea, which imports almost all its energy needs, wants to attract investment from the oil-rich Middle East. The agreement with the six nations may boost South Korea's gross domestic product by 0.54 percentage point, the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy said in January.
"The two parties aim to finish talks by the end of next year after about four rounds of meetings,'' Lee Hye Min, deputy minister for the free-trade agreement, said this week.
South Korea bought $55.2 billion worth of energy resources, mostly crude oil, from the six countries last year, accounting for 72 percent of its total energy imports, according to the trade ministry.
It exported $10.9 billion worth of goods including automobiles to the nations. South Korean builders such as Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. won $14.4 billion of construction orders from the countries last year, according to the ministry.
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