The Korea-Vietnam free trade agreement has been reached on December 10 after 28
months of negotiations since beginning talks in August 2012.
Korean President Park Geun-hye held a meeting on the same day with Vietnamese
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Busan ahead of the 2014 ASEAN-Korea
Commemorative Summit and declared a de facto conclusion of the free trade
agreement between the two countries. Vietnam is the ninth largest trading
partner to Korea and fourth largest in terms of foreign direct investment as of
last year.
A Korean government official said, "Once the
[Korea-Vietnam] free trade agreement goes into effect, it is likely to have an
impact bigger than any other FTAs except the Korea-U.S. and the Korea-China
FTA."
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