A majority of South Korean companies operating in China said a free trade deal signed last week between Seoul and Beijing will have a positive impact on their business, sharpening their price competitiveness, a poll showed Sunday.
According to the poll of 153 Korean companies in China by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), 78.4 percent of the respondents said the impact of the two countries’ free trade agreement will be “very positive” or “positive” for their business.
South Korea and China signed their FTA on Monday in nearly 10 years since they started their negotiations for the deal.
The positive reaction toward the deal stemmed from hopes that it will allow them to bring raw materials or parts made in South Korea to China at a lower price.
Of the companies polled, 56.2 percent said the FTA will improve their conditions for the supply of raw materials and parts, with
37.2 percent saying it will have little impact.
More than 60 percent of the companies said the tariff removal based on the deal will improve their price competitiveness.
However, more than half the companies said the deal will not contribute to an increase in their productivity of finished goods and awareness of their products and brand as well as an improvement in their distribution system in China.
“South Korean companies operating in China seem to expect the FTA to have an impact on imports of intermediate goods from their country, rather than their production and marketing in China,” said an official at KOTRA. (Yonhap)
