SEOUL: A sweeping free trade agreement between South Korea and the European Union is a "win-win" deal for both parties; an EU diplomat said Friday after Europe's parliament approved the deal.
The parliament in Strasbourg voted 465-128 for the pact Thursday after securing safeguards to protect Europe's auto industry from tough South Korean rules on fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions.
"This FTA is a win-win deal to both sides and will bring great benefits to both EU and Korean businesses, workers and consumers on both sides," Tomasz Kozlowski, EU ambassador to Seoul, told a press conference.
The trade accord is the most ambitious the EU has negotiated with an outside partner, and the first with an Asian nation.
The two sides will axe 98 percent of customs duties within five years, apart from a few Korean farm products which will take longer. Rice is completely excluded from the deal.
The EU in a statement cited one study showing that the pact would more than double trade over the next 20 years.
Two-way trade in 2009 was worth 53.5 billion euros ($72.8 billion), with Korean exports, mainly cars, ships, electronics and semiconductors, accounting for 32 billion euros.
The European parliament secured measures that will allow the EU to suspend cuts in customs duties if the lower rates invite an "excessive" rise in South Korean imports.
The deal must be ratified by South Korea's parliament before coming into force on July 1. Individual parliaments in the 27 EU member states must also ratify it, although EU officials indicated this was a formality.
South Korea's ruling Grand National Party, which has an overwhelming majority in the legislature, said it would press for approval this month.
"We aim to pass a ratification motion for the free trade deal during the extra legislative session in February," party floor leader Kim Moo-Sung told Yonhap news agency.
Early ratification would give Europe's firms a head-start over the United States in Asia's fourth largest economy.
Seoul and Washington signed a revised free trade deal this month but this needs ratification by both legislatures, and some Democrats in Congress remain opposed to it.
Kozlowski said big businesses in both Europe and South Korea recognised the benefits of the pact. He stressed the need for information campaigns to sell the deal to small and medium-sized firms.
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