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The chief negotiators of New Zealand and South Korea have initialed the text of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), in an important step towards boosting trade between the two nations, New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said Monday.
"Initialling marks the end of the text's legal verification process. It's another milestone as we progress towards bringing the FTA into force," Groser said in a statement.
"The next step is translation of the text into Korean, which will be completed early next year. Following translation, the FTA will be signed," he said.
"This FTA will deliver real economic benefits to both our countries. It will secure our position in the Korean market and will create more opportunities for traders as tariffs are gradually removed."
On entry into force, tariffs would be eliminated on 48 percent of current New Zealand exports, which would create an estimated 65 million NZ dollars (50.36 million U.S. dollars) duty cut off total duties of 229 million NZ dollars (177.39 million U.S. dollars) in the first year alone, and duties would largely be eliminated within 15 years of entry into force, he said.
South Korea was New Zealand's sixth largest export destination for goods and services and eighth largest import source of goods and services, with total two-way trade of 4 billion NZ dollars (3. 09 billion U.S. dollars) in the year ending June.
