An industrial port in Indonesia (Source: Jakarta Post) Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesia and the Republic of Korea have signed a preliminary agreement on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
The CEPA is equivalent to a free trade agreement (FTA) but also focuses on a broader scope of economic cooperation.
The two countries also agreed to significantly open their service markets and ease related regulations.
They plan to officially strike the CEPA in the first half of 2020. The deal has to be ratified by the respective legislatures.
Two-way trade stood at 20 billion USD in 2018, up from 17.9 billion USD in 2017, according to the RoK’s government data.
The RoK is striving to sign FTAs with Malaysia and the Philippines at the end of the year when the Rok-ASEAN summit is slated for November in Busan.
If all the negotiations under way are successful, the RoK will have free trade deals with all the five of its top ASEAN trading partners./.
VNA
