Korea and China opened a two-day preliminary working-level meeting in Seoul on Thursday to discuss how formal negotiations between the two countries to conclude a free trade agreement will be conducted.

The meeting will be a place to set the “framework of negotiations” with the aim of launching official talks before the end of June, according to news reports.

The reports said the Korean government will propose to divide negotiations into two ― one dealing with sensitive issues like farm products and the other with industrial and other less sensitive areas.

The Korean Trade Ministry will officially announce the start of FTA negotiations with China after setting the negotiation framework and getting approval from related government meetings.

Trade officials said once Seoul smoothly completes its local procedures, it is possible that the two sides could announce the start of formal trade talks in the first half of this year.

Korea and China have long studied the feasibility of concluding a free trade pact, which Seoul experts said is expected to raise Korea’s real economic growth by 2.28 percent over 10 years on the back of increased trade between the neighboring countries.

China is Korea’s largest trading partner and trade between the neighboring countries is expected to reach $300 billion by 2015.

“A bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries will further boost investment and trade,” an official said.

But there are some concerns in Korea that the FTA with China will devastate Korean agriculture.

According to an institute report, damage to Korea’s farming industry from a free trade agreement with China may reach up to $2.8 billion.

Production by the country’s agriculture and fisheries industries may drop 14.26 percent from their combined output in 2005 if and when an FTA with China allows an inflow of cheap Chinese products, the report said.

(From news reports)