2015年CRI 中国和韩国在周一签署了自由贸易协议（在线收听）

China and South Korea signed the free trade agreement on Monday.

Under the deal, tariffs on over 90 percent of the goods traded between the two countries will be removed in the next two decades.

It covers 17 areas including trade in goods, services and investment. It also covers e-commerce, government procurement and competitive policies.

It is also the first time for China to include finance, telecommunications and e-commerce industries in a free trade deal.

Jin Yisong, President of China Chamber of Commerce in Korea, says the FTA marks a breakthrough in economic and trade cooperation between the two economies.

"Both countries can make their respective advantages complementary to each other.

It will have a positive impact in the upgrading of enterprises and optimization of industrial structure in both China and South Korea."

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached 235 billion U.S. dollars in 2014.

Once the FTA takes effect, the number is expected to reach to 400 billion U.S. dollars in five years.

Chun Kalim, Professor of Political Economics from Hoseo University, says this agreement has a high-level value for South Korea.

"South Korea values a lot in exploring overseas markets, as it is an export-dominated country. On the one hand, China itself is a huge market; on the other hand, China's "one belt, one road initiative" will provide South Korea a great opportunity to expand its influence to Central Asia and South Asia. "

Beijing has been in discussion with South Korea over forming a broader trade bloc called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

This is a multilateral Free Trade Agreement that links the ten members of ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with China,

India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

Professor Chun Kalim believes the FTA agreement between China and South Korea can form a blueprint for these negotiations.

"The signing of this agreement will promote the implementation of a larger free trade agreement among China, South Korea and Japan.

At the same time, it'll speed up the process to make the entire East Asian region a free trade zone and influence areas such as ASEAN and South Asia. "

If negotiated successfully, this Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership would create the largest trading bloc in the world.

For CRI, this is Huang Shan.