China-Korea Free Trade Agreement is officially signed, and exports of textiles and agricultural products will benefit

Ministry of Commerce news on June 1, Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng and South Korean Minister of Industry, Trade and Resources Yoon Sang-ji officially signed the "Free Trade Agreement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Korea" on behalf of the two governments on June 1.
The China-Korea Free Trade Agreement is the one that my country has signed so far with the widest coverage of issues and the largest trade volume between countries. comprehensive and high-level” goals. According to the agreement, in terms of opening level, the liberalization ratio of bilateral trade in goods exceeds 90% of tax items and 85% of trade volume. The scope of the agreement covers a total of 17 areas of trade in goods, trade in services, investment and rules, including "21st century economic and trade issues" such as e-commerce, competition policy, government procurement, and the environment. At the same time, the two sides promised to continue the negotiation of trade in services in the negative list mode after the signing of the agreement and carry out investment negotiations based on the pre-establishment national treatment and the negative list mode.
Jin Baisong, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Research Department of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said that the signing of the China-Korea Free Trade Agreement will accelerate the investment of Korean companies in the Chinese market. Shandong Peninsula, Weihai, Qingdao, Tianjin and other regions with relatively close economic and trade relations with South Korea are expected to benefit from it sooner.
The Huatai Securities research report believes that the establishment of the China-Korea Free Trade Zone will benefit the port and shipping industry first. On the one hand, after the China-Korea Free Trade Agreement comes into effect, the scale of trade between the two countries is expected to increase significantly, and the trade in goods between the two countries is dominated by sea freight, which will bring a corresponding increase in port throughput and sea freight volume; The free trade agreement will include preferential policies such as customs clearance facilitation and quarantine negative list, which will greatly save the time cost of ports and shipping links. After the official signing of the China-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the tariffs on South Korea's imports of Chinese textiles and agricultural products will be significantly reduced, which will help Chinese textile and agricultural products trading companies gain more market share from South Korea in the face of shrinking demand in traditional markets such as Europe and Japan. .
Statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China show that from January to April, the total value of China's imports and exports to South Korea was about 537.42 billion yuan, of which 198.12 billion yuan was exported and 339.3 billion yuan was imported.
According to foreign trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce, from January to March, the bilateral trade volume between South Korea and China was US$56.24 billion, an increase of 1.7%. Among them, South Korea's exports to China were US$33.90 billion, down 1.5%; imports from China were US$22.34 billion, up 7.1%. South Korea's trade surplus was US$11.55 billion, down 14.8%. China is South Korea's largest trading partner, largest export destination and largest source of imports. Electromechanical products, optical medical equipment and chemical products are the main products exported by South Korea to China. The top three commodities imported by South Korea from China are mechanical and electrical products, base metals and products, and chemical products. In labor-intensive products such as textiles and raw materials, furniture and toys, China continues to maintain its advantages.
According to Xinhua News Agency, people from all walks of life in South Korea generally believe that the warm eastward wind brought by the "Belt and Road" will provide new opportunities for exchanges between China and South Korea in various fields. South Korean experts believe that the "One Belt, One Road" strategy will help South Korea expand economic cooperation with countries along the "One Belt, One Road" route, and South Korea hopes to actively participate in it. The China-Korea Free Trade Agreement will provide a model for the construction of free trade zones along the "Belt and Road".