Korea and Turkey are scheduled to ink a bilateral free trade agreement and an agreement on trade in goods on Wednesday in Ankara, Seoul’s Trade Ministry said on Monday.

Trade Minister Bark Tae-ho and Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan will sign the trade pact, which will be the ninth FTA to be signed by Korea. Turkey will be the 46th country to sign an FTA with Korea.

The two countries had announced in March that they concluded the FTA negotiations, which began in March 2010.

Bark is also slated to sign a social security agreement under which Korean workers will be exempted for five years from the requirement to sign up for Turkey’s social insurance policy. This is expected to reduce insurance premium payments by about 3 billion won each year.

The annual trade volume between Korea and Turkey rose from $3.1 billion in 2009 to $4.27 billion in 2010 and $5.89 billion last year.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)