China and South Korea on Monday reached a free trade agreement that will remove tariffs on more than 90 per cent of the goods.
The agreement covers 85 per cent of the trade value between the two countries. The technical details of the deal will be finalised by the end of the year, according to minutes of the meeting between President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye on Monday in Beijing.
The two countries recorded US$228.9 billion of bilateral trade last year. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, accounting for 26 per cent of South Korea’s total exports and 16 per cent of total imports, according to government data.
China and South Korea started free trade talks in May 2012. China currently has free trade agreements with nine countries.