East coastal city benefits from China-ROK FTA

Enterprises in east China's coastal city of Weihai have benefited from the China-Republic of Korea (ROK) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) since it was signed in June 2015, local authorities said Tuesday.

The commission for development and reform in Weihai, Shandong Province said 1,845 enterprises conducted trade with ROK in 2015 worth 5.98 billion U.S. dollars, 35.3 percent of the city's imports and exports, an increase of 14.5 percent. The city's ROK bonded commodity trading center is now home to 140 ROK manufacturers' Chinese headquarters. The city now working on a commodity distribution center and China-ROK cross-border e-commerce.

More than 350,000 Chinese and South Koreans passed through the city's passport control in 2015.

China and the ROK signed the FTA in June 2015 after three years of negotiations. Under the deal, Seoul and Beijing will eliminate tariffs on more than 90 percent of traded goods within 20 years. So far, there have been two rounds of tariff cuts, on Dec.20, 2015 and Jan.1, 2016 respectively.

China is ROK's largest trading partner. Bilateral trade stood at 240 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 and is expected to reach 300 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

Source: Xinhua