Colombia’s minister of foreign affairs will visit with her South Korean counterpart in Seoul Saturday following the recent signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Maria Angela Holguin plans to discuss the implementation of the FTA with Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and will seek to strengthen cultural and technological ties with the Asian economic dynamo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Korean leader Lee Myung-bak signed the economic treaty June 25.
The FTA will eliminate 95.1% of tariffs on Colombian goods and 96.7% on South Korean products over the next ten years. The treaty will likely boost trade with the Pacific Rim nation that imported over $400 billion worth of goods last year, including $276 million worth of Colombian products.
“Last year, our bilateral trade exceeded $1.4 billion, and we hope, from the strength of the FTA, to multiply that by much more,” said Santos last month.
The agreement will not go into effect until it is ratified by both countries’ governments, which is estimated to take between one and two years.