1. The 7^th Korea-EU Joint Committee Meeting was held on February 9 in Seoul. The Korean 
side was headed by Mr. Ahn Ho-young, Deputy Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs and Trade (MOFAT). The EU side was headed by Mr. Karel Kovanda, Deputy 
Director-General for External Relations at the European Commission.

ᄋThe meeting was also attended, on Korea’s side, by relevant personnel from MOFAT, 
Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Ministry of Land, Transport 
and Maritime Affairs, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry for 
Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Korea Customs Service and 
Korea Intellectual Property Organization. On the EU side, the meeting was attended by 
relevant personnel from the Directorate General for External Relations, the Directorate 
General for Trade and representatives from the EU Mission in South Korea, as well as 
Ambassadors of EU member countries in as observers.

2. The Korea-EU Joint Committee Meetings have been held since 2001 according to the 
Korea-EU Framework Agreement. Since their first establishment, the Meetings have 
progressed into regular high-level talks involving extensive policy dialogue on issues of 
economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

3. In particular, amid the continuing worldwide recession as a result of the global financial 
crisis, the 7^th meeting offered both sides an opportunity to discuss not only bilateral trade 
issues and implementation of greater sector-specific cooperation, but also possible 
cooperative measures to actively address the global financial crisis through cooperation 
within the G-20, as well as measures to prevent the expansion of protectionism.

ᄋBuilding upon the momentum achieved through the G-20 Washington Summit held in 
November 2008, both sides vowed to cooperate closely to achieve substantial outcomes in 
the second G-20 London Summit (to be held on April 2). The two sides also recognized the 
need to implement reliable measures in accordance with the agreed spirit of the G-20 
Washington Summit, and agreed to refrain from applying protectionist measures.

ᄋFurthermore, with Korea set to host the G-20 Summit next year, the Korean side 
emphasized the need to reform the existing financial markets, cooperate in macroeconomic 
policy, reject protectionism and strengthen cooperation in microeconomic policy.

4. The Korean side urged the EU for a prompt resolution of pending bilateral trade issues, 
including: anti-dumping measures on Korean polyester staple fibers (PSF); EU’s customs 
classification for DMB phones; permission of a grace period on EU’s import restriction against 
host plants (plant or seed) for white-spotted longhorn beetles; and bottlenecks faced by 
the Korean tire industry following EU’s introduction of a new tire noise regulation.

ᄋThe EU side also requested Korea’s cooperation in resolving issues of interest to the EU, 
including those related to intellectual property rights, agricultural goods and pharmaceuticals. 
Both sides agreed to work toward resolving pending trade issues in a mutually satisfactory manner.

5. Both sides praised the substantial progress achieved through bilateral cooperative works 
in numerous areas, including science and technology, aviation, economic policy, education, 
culture, environment and development policy. The two countries agreed to continue their 
cooperation in order to further expand and strengthen their cooperative works in each area.

ᄋIn particular, the Korean side requested cooperation from the EU side for pending cooperative 
works, including: joint research for a Korea-EU Open Sky Agreement; exemption from security 
control on liquids for Korean flight passengers; negotiations for a Passenger Name Record 
(PNR) Agreement; and the initialing of the Competition Agreement. Furthermore, the Korean 
side requested the active interest and participation of EU member countries and businesses 
in the 2012 Yeosu Expo, as well as EU’s support for Korea ’s bid to enter the OECD’s Development 
Assistance Committee in 2010.

ᄋFurthermore, both sides welcomed the success of various cooperative works, including: 
the establishment of the Student Exchange Program, which was the first cooperative work 
in education between Korea and the EU; the establishment of the EU Gateway to Korea 
business cooperation program; the founding of two additional EU Centers, which aim to 
promote educational and cultural cooperation with the EU; and the successful operation of 
the EU Executive Training Program. Both sides also agreed on the need to mutually increase 
human exchanges in order to advance Korea-EU cooperative relations.

6. In addition, both sides reconfirmed their commitment to work toward an amicable 
conclusion of the ongoing Korea-EU FTA negotiations and the revisions to the Framework 
Agreement, and agreed to work toward establishing a strong foundation for deeper progress 
in bilateral relations.

7. Trade volume between Korea and the EU, Korea’s second largest trading partner after 
China, reached approximately US$98.4 billion in 2008 (US$58.4 billion in exports, $40 billion 
in imports). The outcomes of the 7^th Meeting are expected to contribute to greater Korea-EU 
cooperation in the areas of economy and trade, as well as an expansion of human exchanges.

                                      Spokesperson of MOFAT

*unofficial translation