S. Korea, EU to announce conclusion of FTA later Monday: official

(ATTN: UPDATES with additional remarks, more information, background)
By Byun Duk-kun
STOCKHOLM, July 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the European Union have reached
agreement on a proposed free trade deal, leaving only initialing and signing of
the agreement before it can be submitted to their respective legislatures for
ratification, a South Korean official said Monday.

The official said what he called a "virtual" conclusion of the free trade
agreement (FTA) will be declared later Monday by South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who are set to hold a
bilateral summit here.
Sweden assumed the six-month presidency of the EU at the beginning of the month.
"The leaders will announce that a mutual agreement on all remaining points of
contention has been reached and will call for an early initialing of the deal
following swift legal reviews," the official, well versed in the Korea-EU FTA
negotiations, told reporters here.
"This means all negotiations have been concluded and that a Korea-EU FTA has been
reached," the official added.
Lee and Reinfeldt, in their announcement, are expected to say only that the
negotiations have culminated rather than declare an official accord. The
declaration, technically, needs to be made by the European Commission, the
executive committee of the EU that has led the FTA negotiations with Seoul.
At least three EU member states were earlier said to have opposed the EU's trade
deal with South Korea, but the South Korean official, currently accompanying the
president, said all the countries have withdrawn their reservations, with only
one country saying it needs a little more time to deal with any domestic
opposition.
One of the last sticking points was created by a gap on duty drawbacks, the
official said. Others officials earlier identified the rules of origin as another
major hurdle in the negotiations.
"The sides should be able to conclude their legal reviews after a couple of
meetings by the end of August and then hold an initialing ceremony sometime in
September," the official told reporters.
The nearly 1,000-page agreement will be made public soon after the initialing of
the accord. The official said it will take some time before they will be able to
formally sign the document as it has to be first put into 23 different languages
used in EU member countries for their final review.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)