South Korea Approves Free Trade Deal with India 

2009-11-06 09:45

 

South Korea approved a free trade deal with India on November 6th. The trade deal will eliminate and lower tariffs on more than $15 billion in annual bilateral trade with India.

India’s trade minister says the trade pact could double the volume of trade between the two countries.

The South Korea-India deal will eliminate tariffs on three quarters of India's imports from South Korea by value, and more than 80 percent of South Korea's imports from India.

The pact could boost annual two-way trade by $3.3 billion in the near term and raise South Korea's GDP by more than a billion dollars.

South Korea's main exports to India are auto parts, petroleum products, and mobile phones. Its largest import from India is naphtha, a kind of flammable oil, accounting for more than half of imports in 2008.

This is India’s first deal with a developed economy. The deal is South Korea’s eighth free trade pact, including the deals with the U.S. and European Union that are yet to be implemented.