S Korea, China to hold 11th FTA talks next week

South Korea and China will hold a fresh round of negotiations on the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) next week, Seoul's Trade Ministry said Thursday.

The 11th round of the FTA talks will be held for five days from next Monday in Meishan city of China's Sichuan Province, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

South Korean delegation will be headed by assistant Commerce Minister Woo Tae-hee, and the Chinese side will be led by Wang Shouwen, assistant minister of China's Ministry of Commerce.

The new round will make a comprehensive, in-depth discussion on all areas, including goods, services, investment, regulations and cooperation, the ministry said.

During the previous round, the two sides had different views on the level of goods liberalization and the way of liberalizing services and investment, the ministry said, noting that Seoul will seek advancement in liberalization at the upcoming negotiations.

South Korea and China completed the first stage of negotiations in September last year for the bilateral free trade pact, with a total of seven rounds of negotiations. The talks began in May 2012.

Seoul and Beijing tentatively agreed to abolish tariffs on 90 percent of all products during the first-stage talks, but they opened the door for raising the threshold during the second-phase negotiations.

China is South Korea's No.1 trading partner, with Seoul's exports to Beijing accounting for a quarter of the total in 2012. Since the two neighbors established diplomatic ties in 1992, their annual trade has grown almost 50 times and reached 256 billion U.S. dollars in 2012.