UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: South Korea has reached a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), a type of free trade agreement (FTA), with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agreement aims to enhance relations with the UAE, create new export markets, and ensure a secure energy supply. This is the first FTA between Korea and an Arab nation.
As per the joint declaration signed by Minister Ahn Duk-Geun and UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, the two countries’ CEPA negotiations were officially concluded on Saturday in Seoul. The nation’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy broke the news on Sunday.
CEPA is an FTA that contains steps to improve and broaden communications and collaboration in a number of areas, including enhancing market accessibility for products and services by way of tariff reductions. The 24th FTA that Korea has signed is the CEPA between Korea and the UAE.
In accordance with the deal, over the course of the following ten years, both nations will open 92.8 percent and 91.2 percent, respectively, of their respective markets to one another.
In addition to removing tariffs on promising Korean export products like medical devices and cosmetics as well as agricultural, livestock, and fishery products like beef, chicken, fruit, and ramyeon, the UAE will also do away with tariffs on important Korean exports like automobiles and auto parts, home appliances, and weapons.
The UAE agreed to the highest level of openness in its CEPA agreements to date for the services industry, including video and music content as well as healthcare. Crude oil tariffs will likewise be totally eliminated during the next ten years.
It is anticipated that the removal of tariffs on crude oil, which is susceptible to price changes, will increase cost competitiveness in the Korean refining sector and open the door for other industries to use petroleum products as raw materials to maintain price competitiveness.
About 10% of Korea’s total oil imports come from the UAE, which is Korea’s third-largest source of imported crude oil.
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