The South Korea-Central America free trade agreement(FTA) will go into effect on Monday.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiled the date on Thursday, saying it was set after Panama, which had been the last of the five Central American nations to ratify the accord, recently concluded such procedures.
In February 2018, South Korea signed the trade deal with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama. Since then, South Korea had partially ratified the deal with the five countries, minus Panama.
With the effectuation, South Korea will have a major FTA network in the Americas. Prior to the latest deal, South Korea had signed FTAs with the U.S., Canada, Chile, Peru and Colombia.
Under the deal, the five Central American countries have promised to immediately or gradually remove tariffs on more than 95 percent of all products. Tariffs will be immediately waived for South Korean cars and cosmetics and gradually for steel and home appliances.
The agreement also calls for South Korea to immediately slash tariffs on coffee and raw sugar and for bananas in five years time.