Korea and China achieved general consensus on the modality and range of their bilateral free trade agreement during the sixth round of talks held in Busan this week.

Their outcome, however, fell below the expectations that the recent summit between President Park Geun-hye and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would add immediate momentum to the ongoing negotiations.

“We came close to reaching a final agreement in most issues, including the product and non-product sectors,” said an official of the Northeast Asia FTA department of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Thursday.

Both countries also agreed to expand the range of talks to disputed issues, such as technical barriers to trade, e-commerce, environment and economic cooperation, the official added.

“It is significant that we ended the ongoing conflicts over these issues and decided to reflect the spirit of agreement which was displayed during the summit,” the official said.

Officials, however, also stressed that the bilateral FTA is a long-term project, expressing concerns over excessive optimism.

“Despite the summit agreement, many of the working-level officials held on to their conventional claims,” the official said.

“We shall not obsess ourselves with immediate achievements but place more focus on the stability of the talks.”

The ministry thus took a step back from its previous prediction that the talks would soon move onto the second phase.

“We expect to see visible progress in this sixth round and in the next one,” Trade Minister Yoon Sang-jick told reporters on Monday, the day before the Busan talks kicked off.

“Should the two consecutive rounds end up well, we will move on to the second phase (of the FTA negotiations).”

The detailed timeline or phases of the talks, however, may not yet be confirmed and will be further discussed in the next round of talks, which is to be held in China in September, according to officials.

Meanwhile, groups of local farmers, fishers and livestock raisers had held rallies during the three-day talks in Busan, claiming that the trade pact will inflict irreversible damages on the local industries.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)