Illustrative image (Source: Yonhap) Hanoi (VNA) – The Republic of Korea (RoK) isworking hard to conclude free trade talks with Malaysia, the Philippines andIndonesia before November when leaders of the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) meet for the ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit in the country.
According to Yonhap news agency, Asia's fourth-largest economyalready has a free trade agreement with ASEAN, but the country is seeking tobroaden economic ties with individual members through separate free trade dealsamid growing protectionism.
The RoK and the ASEAN member states shared the opinion that tradebetween the two sides should increase amid deepening trade protectionism, JooHyung-chul, a government adviser for economic affairs, said at a pressbriefing.
The presidential aide said Seoul is seeking to strike respectivedeals with the three ASEAN nations before the summit in the southern port cityof Busan.
Malaysia is the RoK's fourth-largest trading partner in SoutheastAsia, with two-way trading volume reached 19.2 billion USD in 2018.
The RoK has been making efforts to diversify its tradingportfolio, especially amid the growing trade feud between the United States andChina. The top two trading partners accounted for around 40 percent of thecountry's annual outbound shipments in 2018.
The country's exports sank 11.7 percent on-year in September,extending their slump to a 10th consecutive month, hurt by continued weakprices of semiconductors and the yearlong US-China trade war.
If all talks under way are successful, the RoK will have FTA dealswith all of its top five trading partners in Southeast Asia, including Vietnamand Singapore./.
VNA
