SEOUL, March 6 (Chinese media) -- Presidents of South Korea and Australia agreed
on starting negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) in May during their
summit talks held in Canberra, South Korea's Korea Herald reported Friday.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Australian Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd also agreed on further economic cooperation and renewable energy
development.
"We take what is already a very good economic relationship between the two
of us and we intend to make it even closer, even bigger, even better," Rudd said
in a news conference after their summit.
The two nations had preliminary FTA talks separately in September and
November last year.
Australia is currently South Korea's 11th largest trading partners with
bilateral trade standing at 23.17 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, according to
Korea Herald.
South Korea's exports and imports topped 5.17 billion U.S. dollars and 18
billion U.S. dollars, respectively.
According to a joint study by private experts from the two nations, a free
trade pact between South Korea and Australia will boost their annual gross
domestic products by 29.6 billion U.S. dollars and 22.7 billion U.S. dollars,
respectively, by 2020.
The two leaders also had broad discussions on measures to tackle the
current economic downturn, especially focusing on disposal of distressed assets,
and cooperative procedures on climate change and green growth issues.
South Korea will participate in an Australia-led project to develop new
carbon capture and storage technology.
The two countries agreed to assign 2011, the 50th anniversary of their
diplomatic ties, as the Year of Korea-Australia Friendship, President Lee's
office said.
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