China, S. Korea, Japan begin 3rd round talks on FTA

China, South Korea and Japan on Tuesday kicked off their third round of talks toward forming a trilateral free trade area (FTA), with fields like intellectual property and goods and services to be covered.

The three countries launched the free trade talks last year and held the first meeting in late March in Seoul this year. The second round of talks was held in Shanghai in July.

The countries agreed in a preparatory meeting in Seoul in October that they should conclude the trilateral free trade talks before the end of 2015.

If the free trade agreement achieved, it will group the countries that accounted for about 20 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

Apart from the trilateral FTA deal, South Korea and China on Nov 22 concluded the eighth round of talks for a bilateral free trade deal after the two sides discussed further about the level of liberalization for goods, according to South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

According to a press release from the ministry, South Korea and China also held separate working group talks focusing on the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS), technical barriers to trade (TBT) , intellectual property rights, service and investment and other issues relevant to liberalization under the proposed trade deal.

The exchange of the two sides' initial offers on the level of liberalization this time marked a "good start," said a ministry official.