Korea and China ended their fourth round of negotiations for a free trade agreement on Thursday with little progress.

But the two sides reached an agreement to include intellectual property in items to be discussed in negotiations.

Trade Ministry officials in Seoul said the FTA talks held in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, did not yield specific results, expressing hope that the two countries would reach a consensus in the next negotiation talks in China.

“The Korean government will seek to protect its people’s profit and maximize mutual prosperity,” said Choi Kyong-lim, South Korean deputy trade minister and chief negotiator for the Korea-China FTA, at a press briefing.

Seoul officials said that the two countries talked about removing tariff barriers, but the negotiations did not go smoothly.

“We all know that certain industry sectors are very sensitive about lifting the tariff,” Choi said. “It was not so easy to reach agreement on this.”

Regarding the manufacturing sector, Korea and China discussed terms and modalities on how to define individual products and services and categorize them.

Labeling place of production, customs policies, trade promotions, technical barriers to trade were included in the negotiation table, but needs further talks at the next talks, officials said. The next negotiations will take place in China with the exact date and schedule pending.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)