Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the State of Israel

 1. Taehee Woo, Vice Minister of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Republic of Korea and Amit Lang, Director General of Ministry of Economy and Industry, State of Israel held a meeting today(May 24th,2016) in Jerusalem, Israel to discuss various ways to expand trade and investment between the two countries.

2. Vice Minister Woo and DG Lang, taking into account the complementary trade structure between the two countries, acknowledged that both countries have great potential for promoting trade and investment and enhancing cooperation in various promising areas such as technology start-ups, cutting-edge industries, agriculture, and industry-academia collaboration. In this context, Vice Minister Woo and DG Lang shared the view that the launch of the Korea-Israel Free Trade Agreement (hereinafter referred to as "the FTA") would lay a strong foundation for enhancing cooperation between the two countries.

3. Vice Minister Woo and DG Lang, noting that all the necessary domestic procedures for launching negotiations of the FTA have been completed in both countries, agreed to hold the first round of negotiations on June 27th, 2016.

4. Vice Minister Woo and DG Lang further agreed that, taking into account the already established FTA networks of both countries, the bilateral FTA aims to be a high-level and comprehensive agreement consistent with relevant WTO provisions. They also shared the view that the FTA would contribute to the enhancement of economic cooperation.

5. The two agreed that the possible scope and coverage of the FTA would include trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic cooperation, and other issues of mutual interest.