Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have initialed the bilateralfree trade agreement (FTA), according to a press release from the RoKMinistry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) on March 29.

Theagreement will boost bilateral trade by removing tariff barriers andnon-tariff obstacles in trade between the two countries.

Accordingto the MOTIE, the Government will do its utmost to officially sign theagreement in the first half of this year and submit it to the parliamentfor early approval in order for the agreement to take effect by the endof 2015.

The English edition of the agreement will be announced on March 30.

Duringthe May 2014 working visit to the RoK on the occasion of the 25 thanniversary of ASEAN-RoK Relations (1989-2014) in Seoul, President ParkGeun Hye and Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung announced theconclusion of the negotiations on the agreement.

The two sides intend to increase the volume of trade to 70 billion USD in 2020, triple the current figure.

TheMOTIE asserted that the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement will openopportunities for RoK small and medium business to penetrate theVietnamese market, particularly in garments and textiles, car parts,cosmetics and electronics.

However, the MOTIE said rice will not be included in the FTA as it is considered a “sensitive” commodity for the RoK.-VNA