It has been nine years since the two countries, Korea and Canada began negotiating the terms of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2005. President Park Geun-hye, who is currently making a state visit to Canada, will hold a summit meeting on the 23rd with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at Ottawa and sign a free trade agreement.
According to Ahn Jong-beom, the senior presidential economic adviser, the Korea-Canada FTA will liberalize trade between the two countries by 92-95 percent within three years and by 99 percent within ten years in terms of import volume.
With the signing of the FTA, Korea expects to gain an important benefit, its textile tariffs (an average of 5.9%) will disappear within three years, which will benefit mostly small exporters. In contrast, the 211 agricultural items have been excluded from the marketing opening discussion as of now, while 71 items will undergo gradual phase out of tariffs over the ten-year period.
With the signing of FTA, it would eliminate tariffs on 99 percent of currently traded items within ten years.
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