[Ip-health] Korea-EU free trade deal announced

[Heesob Nam]

* This is NOT included in the article reproduced below. Concerning the
approval-patent linkage, SK government confirmed that the linkage
system which will be implemented upon the ratification of the US-Korea
FTA is applicable to any pharmaceutical products approved by SK
government regardless of their origin.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=3D2907391

Korea-EU free trade deal announced
Lee redoubled efforts to convince Poland and Italy of value of FTA
July 14, 2009

Korea and the European Union have tentatively concluded free trade
negotiations, a breakthrough expected to aggressively boost bilateral
commercial exchanges of more than $98 billion, leaders of Korea and
Sweden announced yesterday in a press conference in Stockholm.

President Lee Myung-bak and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt
declared that negotiations of more than two years aimed at
liberalizing trade between Korea and EU has finally ended. The
announcement followed their summit at the Sweden=92s capital city.

=93The two leaders welcomed the final agreement on the Korea-EU free
trade deal and expressed hope it will quickly be initialed,=94 President
Lee=92s office said in a press release.

The announcement of the trade deal between Korea and its
second-largest trading partner came on the last day of Lee=92s European
trip. The deal is expected to radically open up the markets once it is
fully implemented. According to the Korea International Trade
Association, the deal is expected to remove duties on 96 percent of
Korea=92s imports and 99 percent on the EU=92s imports over three years.
Korea is the EU=92s eighth-largest trading partner as of last year, and
the EU is Korea=92s largest supplier of foreign direct investment.

Sweden assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union
at the beginning of the month. Although the EU executive commission is
Korea=92s negotiation partner, the announcement was made by Lee and
Reinfeldt with the understanding of the EU administration.

The EU=92s Article 133 Committee, in charge of the bloc=92s trade
policies, approved the final draft of the Korea-EU FTA in its latest
meeting in Brussels Friday.

In his biweekly radio address, aired yesterday morning in Korea, Lee
was pleased with the trade deal, calling it one of the main goals of
his trip to Europe. Lee recorded the speech on Sunday in Stockholm.

=93Fortunately, we were able to seal the Korea-EU free trade agreement,
which has been protracted due to opposition from some countries,=94 Lee
said. =93When the Korea-EU FTA is implemented, the impact on Korea=92s
trade will be significant because the agreement will liberalize trade
with each and every 27 members of the EU.=94

In his meeting with journalists, Lee also detailed his efforts to
persuade European leaders to support the free trade agreement.

=93Poland was very reluctant, but after the summit, Poland informed the
recent EU trade ministers=92 meeting that it will support the FTA,=94 Lee
said.

The president also said his discussions with Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi were =93dramatic.=94 Italy had been reluctant to back
the trade liberalization deal because it feared the impact on the
country=92s auto industry, particularly focused on compact-size vehicle
production.

A government official said Seoul carefully designed Lee=92s trip to
include Poland and Sweden on the sidelines of attending the extended
G8 summit in Italy after it had learned of the reluctance of Poland
and Italy to back the FTA in early July.

=93The strategy was for Lee to directly persuade the Polish and Italian
leaders, and it worked,=94 the official said.

The negotiation of the Korea-EU free trade agreement began in May
2007. Seoul negotiators said the deal has been nearly concluded since
March, but the actual announcement was postponed as the two sides
failed to strike a deal on two sticky issues: duty drawbacks and rules
of origin. In addition to Poland and Italy, Hungary had also opposed
the deal, the official said.

A series of working-level processes remain before the Korea-EU free
trade agreement takes effect. Korea and the EU executive commission
will put the agreed terms into legal writing and legal experts will
fine-tune the specifics.

=93We have already begun the process, so we will be able to complete it
by the end of August,=94 a senior Korean official said.

A tentative signing will take place in September to give a final
confirmation of the agreement, and then Korea and the EU executive
commission will make public the entire free trade agreement.

The actual signing will be the next step. The agreement will be
translated into 23 languages of the 27 EU member nations, and each
country will officially sign the translated agreement. =93In the past,
the treaties formed between the EU and other countries take up to four
months to be translated,=94 the official said. =93If the tentative signing
takes place in September, then the official signing will be possible
in January or February of next year.=94

After the signing ceremonies, the agreement will be ratified by
Korea=92s National Assembly and the European Parliament. No ratification
is needed for the legislatures of individual EU members. =93We hope the
free trade agreement takes effect before the end of second half next
year,=94 the official said.

By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]