Free trade agreements of South Korea

South Korea has concluded free trade agreements (FTAs) and other agreements with a trade component with countries around the world and is negotiating with others.

Trade agreements in force

  South Korea

  Free-trade areas

No. [1]	State	Commenced negotiation	Officially Signed	Fully enforced	Notes
1	Chile	14 December 1999	15 February 2003	1 April 2004	South Korea's first-ever FTA
2	Singapore	27 January 2004	4 August 2005	2 March 2006
3	European Free Trade Association ( Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and   Switzerland)	18 January 2005	15 December 2005	1 September 2006	South Korea's first FTA with a regional block
4	ASEAN ( Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,  Laos,  Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines,  Singapore,  Thailand and  Vietnam)	23 February 2005	24 August 2006 (goods)	1 June 2007 (goods)	agreements on goods, service and investment signed gradually from 2006 to 2009; agreement on goods enforced in 2007 and others in 2009
			21 November 2007 (service)	1 May 2009 (service)
			2 June 2009 (investment)	1 September 2009 (investment)
5	India	23 March 2006	7 August 2009	1 January 2010	see Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and South Korea
6	European Union and its member states	7 May 2007	6 October 2010	(1 July 2011) 13 December 2015	see European Union–South Korea Free Trade Agreement; enforced provisionally from 2011 and fully from 2015; [2] EU's first trade agreement with environmental and labour components [3]
7	Peru	16 March 2009	21 March 2011	1 August 2011	see South Korea–Peru Free Trade Agreement
8	United States	5 June 2006	30 June 2007	15 March 2012	see United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement; signed under Obama administration [4] and revised under Trump administration [5]
		5 January 2018 (revised)	24 September 2018 (revised)	1 January 2019 (revised)
9	Turkey	26 April 2010	1 August 2012 (framework and goods)	1 May 2013 (framework and goods)	on framework and goods initially and service and investment three years later
			26 May 2015 (service and investment)	1 August 2018 (service and investment)
10	Australia	19 May 2009	8 April 2014	12 December 2014	see Australia–Korea Free Trade Agreement
11	Canada	28 July 2005	22 September 2014	1 January 2015	see Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement
12	China	14 May 2012	1 June 2015	20 December 2015	see China–South Korea Free Trade Agreement
13	New Zealand	8 June 2009	23 March 2015	20 December 2015
14	Vietnam	6 August 2012	5 May 2015	20 December 2015
15	Colombia	7 December 2009	21 February 2013	15 July 2016
16	Central America ( Panama,  Costa Rica,  Honduras,  El Salvador and  Nicaragua)	18 June 2015	21 February 2018	1 March 2021	Later, Guatemala joined as a new member of the agreement.
17	United Kingdom	24 February 2017	22 August 2019	1 January 2021	never "negotiated" as prohibited by EU rules; aimed at maintaining the trade relations two countries enjoyed under EU-SK FTA before Brexit [6] and subject to re-negotiation in two years [7]
18	ASEAN member states,  China,  Japan,  Australia and  New Zealand	9 May 2013	15 November 2020	1 February 2022	see Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; from February 2022 [8]
19	Indonesia	7 July 2012	18 December 2020	1 January 2023 [9]	see Indonesia–Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement
20	Israel	27 June 2016	12 May 2021	1 January 2023	South Korea's first FTA in Middle East and Israel's first in Asia [10]
21	Ecuador	26 January 2016	11 October 2023		SECA (Strategic Economic Cooperation Agreement) [11] first negotiation commended in 2006 but stalled since; In February 2022 both parties agreed to complete negotiations in 2022 [12] [13]
22	United Arab Emirates	October 2022	14 October 2023 [14]		UAE-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement [14]
23	Gulf Cooperation Council ( Bahrain,  Kuwait,  Oman,  Qatar,  Saudi Arabia,  UAE)	9 July 2008	28 December 2023 [15]		First negotiation commenced in 2008 upon President Roh's visit to Riyadh but later halted by GCC in 2010; [16] resumed negotiation in 2022 upon President Moon's visit to Riyadh [17]
24	Central America +   Guatemala	October 2021	9 January 2024 [14]		Participated as a new member of the Central America-South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. [14]

Trade agreements signed yet in force

No.	State	Commenced negotiation	Officially Signed	Notes
1	Cambodia	30 July 2020	26 October 2021 [18]
2	Philippines	4 June 2019	N/A	concluded negotiations in 2021 [19]
3	Singapore	29 July 2020	N/A	Digital Partnership Agreement on digital trade; concluded negotiations in 2021 [20]

Trade agreements under negotiation

No.	State	Commenced negotiation	Notes
1	China,  Japan	26 March 2013	see China–Japan–South Korea Free Trade Agreement
2	Mercosur* ( Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and  Uruguay)	11 September 2018	without Venezuela who is suspended of Mercosur membership [21]
3	Russia	21 June 2019	on service and investment
4	Malaysia	11 July 2019
5	Uzbekistan	26 April 2021	STEP (Agreement for Sustainable Trade and Economic Partnership)
6	Chile,  New Zealand,  Singapore	2021	see Digital Economy Partnership Agreement [22]
7	Pacific Alliance( Chile,  Colombia,  Mexico and  Peru)	aims to begin in 2022 [23]	as an associate member of the block [24]
8	Mexico	7 February 2006 aims to begin in 2022* [25]	first negotiation commended in 2006 but halted in 2008 [13]
9	United Kingdom	21 November 2023 [26]	see South Korea–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement

Trade agreements of interest

No.	Current Members	Expressed interest	Notes
1	Chile,  New Zealand and  Singapore	2021 [27]	see DEPA (Digital Economy Partnership Agreement)
2	Australia,   Brunei,   Canada,   Chile,  Japan,   Malaysia,   Mexico,   New Zealand,   Peru,   Singapore,   United Kingdom, and   Vietnam	2021 [28]	see CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership)

See also

• Foreign relations of South Korea
• Free trade agreements of India
• Free trade agreements of New Zealand
• Free trade agreements of the European Union
• Free trade agreements of the United Kingdom
• Free trade agreements of the United States
• Free trade agreements of Turkey

References

1. "FTA 강국, KOREA". www.fta.go.kr. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
2. "South Korea - Trade - European Commission". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
3. "Press corner". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
4. "The U.S.-ROK Free Trade Agreement". www.csis.org. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
5. "Trump's First Trade Deal: The Slightly Revised Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement". Cato Institute. 2019-06-13. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
6. "UK and South Korea sign 'continuity' trade agreement". BBC News . 2019-08-22. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
7. "UK and South Korea to sign 'continuity free trade agreement'". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
8. "The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement will enter into force in South Korea". www.meti.go.jp. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
9. "한-인도네시아 CEPA". fta.go.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 31 May 2023.
10. "Israel and South Korea to sign free trade pact". Reuters. 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
11. "Energy | Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy". english.motie.go.kr. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
12. Valencia, Alexandra (2022-02-06). "Ecuador looking to increase China trade by 35%, minister says". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
13. "한-멕시코 FTA 협상 14년 만에 재개…공급망 협력도 강화".
14. "우리나라의 FTA". Korea Federation of Textile Industries. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
15. "GCC-South Korea sign free trade deal in boost to Gulf-Asia economic ties". www.reuters.com. Retrieved 2023-12-18.
16. "S. Korea, Gulf Nations Agree to Resume FTA Talks after 12-Year Hiatus". world.kbs.co.kr. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
17. "The president of the republic of Korea receives the Secretary General of the gulf cooperation council in Riyadh". www.gcc-sg.org. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
18. "한-캄보디아 FTA 정식 서명…신남방정책 발표 후 메콩 첫 협정". The Financial News (in Korean). 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
19. "DTI confirms PH, Korea free trade agreement conclusion". cnn. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-26.
20. "Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement (KSDPA)". www.mti.gov.sg. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
21. "Mercosur suspends Venezuela over trade and human rights". BBC News . 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
22. 황, 석주 (2021-10-06). "S. Korea starts process to join DEPA". Yonhap News Agency . Retrieved 2022-01-23.
23. "Pacific Alliance to start FTA negotiations with South Korea". Opportimes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-01-28.
24. 김, 덕현 (2022-01-26). "Moon hopes for free trade deal with Mexico". Yonhap News Agency . Retrieved 2022-01-28.
25. "Mexico to Restart Free-Trade Talks with South Korea". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
26. "South Korea's Yoon to Talk AI in UK as Trade Negotiations Begin". Bloomberg. 20 November 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
27. "Korea to officially deliver intention to join DEPA". The Korea Times . 2021-09-12. Retrieved 2022-05-15.
28. Global, K. E. D. "South Korea moves to join CPTPP free trade pact as China fears ease". KED Global. Retrieved 2022-05-15.