Minister Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said on the 4th that the government will consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to secure new markets such as ASEAN and Mexico and accelerate exports of K-content and consumer goods.
The Minister said at a second-half briefing by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) chaired by the president at the Blue House, "In the process, we will fully gather opinions from stakeholders, including the agricultural sector and the National Assembly."
The CPTPP is a multilateral free trade agreement (FTA) involving countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The CPTPP eliminates tariffs on almost all traded goods, including manufactured goods, agricultural products, forest products, and intellectual property. Its current members are 12 countries: Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Brunei.
In the past, the Korean government had also pushed to join, but it effectively fell through as issues such as opening the agricultural and fisheries markets and demands to ease restrictions on Japanese seafood met with industry backlash.
On this day, the Minister cited "expanding economic territory" as one of the policy goals in MOTI's second-half briefing and laid out the plan.
With the European Union (EU), the plan is to resolve uncertainty in the trade environment; in the Middle East, to create opportunities for cooperation after the Middle East war, including winning high-value plant orders. With China, Korea will conclude follow-up negotiations on services and investment under the Korea-China free trade agreement (FTA), and in India, establish a new industrial complex for Korean corporations. With the United States, Korea will launch cooperation in strategic industries such as shipbuilding and nuclear power, and with South American countries, strengthen cooperation on critical minerals.