Over the past decade, the export-driven South Korean economy has favored bilateral free trade pacts in a bid to expand trade volume. As of March in 2014, Korea had signed 12 free-trade agreements with its key trade partners ― nine of which are effective and four that are pending ― covering almost 73 percent of the world’s markets.

Starting from the country’s first FTA deal with Chile, which went into effect in 2004, Korea has been actively working to secure bridgeheads for bilateral economic cooperation.

The Korea-ASEAN FTA went into effect in 2007, followed by the enforcement of the Korea-EU FTA in 2011. The FTA with U.S., the world’s largest economy, went into force in 2012.

The latest trade deals were struck in recent months with Australia and Canada.

The China-Japan-South Korea FTA has been under negotiation since 2012, and is part of a boom in free trade agreement activity in the region.

The more ambitious projects include the 12-country negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership talks between ASEAN and Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

(hnpark @heraldcorp.com)