Quan-Ding Liu

The China-Korea FTA took effect in December 2015. Since the fourth anniversary of the implementation of the China-Korea FTA, both sides have benefited greatly from the trade benefits. According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs of China in January 2020, in the past four years, Nanjing Customs alone issued 369,900 certificates of origin of China-Korea FTA for foreign trade enterprises under its jurisdiction, with the visa amount of 16.357 billion US dollars, and the tariff reduction and exemption of Jiangsu exports to South Korea was about 818 million US dollars. The number of visas and the visa amount achieved a four-year continuous growth. Nantong stars synthetic material co., LTD., for example, the company makes the largest benefit for both China and South Korea FTA. Among Nantong region enterprises, for four years, the cumulative certificate issued by China and South Korea is 863 in Nantong customs, totaling $69 million, tariffs for $3.4 million. Implementation of the FTA reduces the customer purchase cost, enhance the competitiveness of products, and cargo customs clearance more smoothly. Shandong is another province with closer economic ties to South Korea. According to data released by Qingdao Customs, enterprises in Shandong province benefited from FTAs to import 63.46 billion yuan in 2019, up 3.7% year-on-year, and tax exemption or exemption reached 4.42 billion yuan, up 3.5%, mainly benefiting mineral products, plastic products and mechanical and electrical products.

In fact, China and the ROK enjoy close economic and trade relations. China is now South Korea's largest trading partner, largest export market and largest source of imports, while South Korea is China's third-largest trading partner. According to Chinese statistics, two-way trade in the first two months of 2019 was us $42.82 billion, including US $16.64 billion in exports to the ROK and US $26.18 billion in imports from the ROK. In terms of investment, South Korea is the second-largest source of foreign direct investment of China, while China is the second-largest overseas investment destination of South Korea. Encouraged by the effect of China-Korea FTA trade, China and the ROK started the Second Phase of negotiation of the China-Korea FTA on March 28, 2018. This is the first time that China has used a negative list to negotiate an FTA on trade in services and investment. If this attempt is successful in the second phase of china-ROK FTA negotiations, it will be of positive significance for China to promote FTA negotiations with other developed economies and expand high-level opening-up.

This not only fits in with China's plan to accelerate the building of a high-standard FTA this year but also creates a freer and more convenient environment for businesses of the two countries to trade and invest in services. By March 2019, the two sides have completed four rounds of negotiations.

(Quan-Ding Liu is associated with Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, China)