Colombian and South Korean negotiating teams will meet with the intention of reaching a prompt conclusion to negotiations for a free trade agreement.
During an official visit to South Korea in September Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his South Korean counterpart President Lee Myung-bak expressed their desire that negotiations be concluded by the end of the year.
Chief negotiator Javier Gamboa said that this treaty will allow for the creation of a legal environment of more certainty for investors from both countries and will also translate into new and better market opportunities for Colombian goods and services.
Colombia’s Trade Minister Sergio Diaz-Granados said 14 chapters have been finished and between Monday and Friday next week it is hoped to move forward with the chapters on access to markets of agricultural and industrial products, rules of origin, sanitary measures, commercial defense, investment, intellectual property, and cooperation.
During the official visit, relations between the two countries were lifted to a “strategic association” and both parties signed “memorandums of understanding” in areas of cooperation which gives the bilateral relationship a new political and economic dimension.
Free trade agreement talks between Colombia and South Korea got off the ground in December 2009 and the fourth round of talks were held on October 2010.
Trade between the two countries nearly doubled in 2010 compared to the previous year and reached $1.82billion according to financial publication Dinero.