The ninth round of negotiations of China-South Korea FTA was held in Xi’an city from January 6 to January 10. In the negotiations, the two sides continued to have comprehensive “offering and asking price” negotiation on goods trade, and launch negotiation of text agreement in more than ten areas on service trade, investment, rules of origin, facilitation of customs procedures and trade, intellectual property and competition policies.

China-Korea FTA negotiation s were launched in May 2012. The two sides agreed that they have pattern bargaining at first, and then have comprehensive offering and asking price and text negotiations. In September 2013, the two sides went through seven rounds of negotiations and reached agreement on the pattern texts in each area, finishing smoothly the pattern negotiations. The negotiation went into the period of comprehensive offering and asking price and text negotiations from the eighth round. According to negotiation plan, the tenth round of China-South Korea FTA negotiations will be held in March in South Korea.