S. Korea, India to resume talks on upgrading trade pact next month

South Korea and India have agreed to resume negotiations to upgrade their bilateral trade pact next month after more than two years of hiatus, Seoul's trade ministry said Wednesday.

The two nations implemented the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in January 2010 and began talks to upgrade the pact in 2015.

But negotiations have been suspended since June 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues.

South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met on Tuesday in New Delhi and agreed to hold official talks for the upgrade of the pact within next month, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The envisioned talks are expected to focus on ways to further open up the goods and services market and ease country of origin rules, officials said.

Two-way trade stood at an all-time high of $23.6 billion in 2021, according to government data. During a summit meeting held in July 2018, President Moon Jae-in and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to more than double their bilateral trade to over $50 billion by 2030. (Yonhap)