Japan, S. Korea fail to set schedule for reopening FTA talks

Tokyo, June 26 Kyodo - Japan and South Korea held working-level talks Wednesday in Tokyo toward reopening negotiations to sign a bilateral free trade agreement which have been suspended since November 2004, but failed to set a schedule for future
proceedings, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Participants ''reaffirmed the significance of a free trade pact between the two
countries and candidly exchanged views on respective areas of interest,'' the
official said. But he declined to go into details about the meeting.

The two sides agreed to exchange the each other's latest data on Japan-South
Korea trade value and tariff rates and fix the date of the next preparatory
meeting through diplomatic channels, the official said.

The working-level talks were held based on an agreement between Japanese Prime
Minister Yasuo Fukuda and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak during their
summit meeting in Tokyo in April.

The bilateral FTA negotiations stalled after Tokyo rejected Seoul's demand that
Japan further open up its market for agricultural imports.

While the two-way negotiations are frozen, South Korea concluded an FTA with
the United States and launched free trade talks with the European Union.==Kyodo