Anchor: South Korea announced that it has signed a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council. Seoul managed to secure the deal before other Asian countries.
Max Lee has more.

Report: South Korea has struck a free trade agreement(FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC), a group of Saudi Arabia and five other Middle Eastern countries.

The conclusion of the FTA negotiation comes as Seoul’s Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun and GCC Secretary General Jassim Muhammad Al-Badaiwi signed a joint declaration of the bilateral FTA in Seoul on Thursday.

Under the deal, South Korea will remove tariffs on 89-point-nine percent of all items, including liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas and other petroleum products.

In exchange, the GCC member nations will lift tariffs on 76-point-four percent of all products traded, including tariffs of four-point-one percent of goods traded.

Through the agreement, the industry ministry is eyeing growth in exports of auto parts, vehicles, machinery and weaponry, adding that cheaper energy imports from the Arab nations will enhance the competitiveness of South Korean exporters.

Tariffs of five percent on South Korea’s exports to the GCC will be phased over a time frame of up to 20 years.

Amid high demand for defense goods in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia ranking second and Qatar third among the world’s top ten arms-importing countries, the FTA is expected to generate further momentum in K-defense industry exports moving forward.

The two sides began FTA negotiations in 2007 before talks were suspended in 2010, only to be resumed in 2022 with several rounds of discussions.

South Korea was able to strike the FTA agreement before other major Asian countries, including China and Japan.

The GCC consists of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman and is the fifth-largest trading partner for South Korea with trade volume between the two coming to 102-point-six billion U.S. dollars in 2022.
Max Lee, KBS World Radio News.