RoK Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki speaks at a press conference in Seoul on December 20, 2021. (Photo: Yonhap/VNA) According to the minister, the RoK will accelerate the process of collecting public opinions and building social consensus.
Hong said at a meeting with other export and trade-related officials that a task force composed of relevant ministries will discuss the impact of the joining and contact member countries of the CPTPP, while pushing to submit an official application to accede to the trade agreement in the middle of April.
Earlier, the RoK government earlier said that it had begun the process to join the mega deal as part of efforts to diversify its export portfolio.
Launched in December 2018, the CPTPP was signed by 11 countries, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Its total trade volume hit 5.7 trillion USD as of 2019, accounting for 15.2 percent of the total global trade value, according to a report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade./.
VNA
