1. The third round of FTA negotiations between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the People’s Republic of China took place in Wei Hai, China, on August 22-24.

° The ROK delegation was led by MOFAT’s Deputy Minister for FTA Choi Kyong-lim and included officials from key relevant government agencies, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; the Ministry of Strategy and Finance; the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

° The Chinese side was headed by Assistant Minister of Commerce Yu Zianhua and comprised of officials from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission.

2. In the latest round of negotiations, the two countries worked to draw up the guidelines for negotiations in the respective fields of goods, services, origins, customs clearance, and trade facilitation. Furthermore, they held a meeting of experts in the areas of government procurement, intellectual property rights, e-commerce and competition policies, during which they exchanged technical views on the direction of future negotiations in these fields.

° In the field of goods, the two sides agreed to categorize items according to the extent of their sensitivity, – regular, sensitive, and ultra-sensitive -- and agreed on the definitions of regular and sensitive items.

° The working group on services, origins, customs clearance and trade facilitation worked to formulate the guidelines for negotiations by explaining the FTAs the respective countries had concluded with other countries and by exchanging information on their domestic laws and institutions.

° With respect to competition policies, government procurement, intellectual property rights and e-commerce, experts of the two countries launched in their meeting a study into their current situation in the two countries.

3. The two sides tentatively agreed to hold the 4th round of negotiations in the ROK in October.

                          Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFAT

* unofficial translation