Korea, Chile Resume Trade Talks

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in Korea held the 11th Korea-Chile Free Trade Commission in Seoul on October 19 to discuss the implementation of the Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and ways to improve it. The commission, which followed a summit between the two countries in July, aimed to strengthen trade and investment cooperation.

The resumption of the FTA, which had been suspended since 2016, led to the agreement of working-level discussions on upgrading the FTA. The key agenda items included revising product-specific rules of origin and advancing negotiations to improve the Korea-Chile FTA, with a focus on cooperation in the minerals sector. Chile, known for its rich critical mineral resources, played a significant role in the discussions, as the agreement was seen as a means to reorganize the goods trade-centered agreement into a structure that reflects the current trade environment, including supply chain cooperation.

The Korea-Chile FTA, which came into effect in 2004, has served as a bridge for economic exchanges between the two countries over the past 22 years, with bilateral trade increasing from $1.57 billion before the agreement to $6.4 billion last year.

Brief written by urgent.news from BusinessKorea's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.