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Asia: China and South Korea seal free-trade deal

CHINA and South Korea signed a free-trade deal yesterday to remove tariffs on more than 90 per cent of goods over two decades.

Trade ministers from the two countries met in Seoul to sign the pact between two of Asia’s biggest economies.

The agreement covers 22 areas including finance and online commerce. Though South Korea’s rice industry is not part of the pact, trade in 70 per cent of agricultural goods will be liberalised.

South Korea’s trade ministry said the deal would boost the country’s gross domestic product by nearly 1 per cent and create more than 50,000 jobs in the decade after its implementation.

The agreement will give South Korea’s small- and medium-sized companies wider access to the Chinese market while boosting China’s investment in South Korea, the ministry said.

It was the first time that China had included finance, telecommunications and online commerce industries in a free-trade deal, according to Seoul.

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