First round of talks on Serbia-South Korea partnership agreement opens in Seoul

SEOUL - The first round of talks on a comprehensive agreement on economic partnership between Serbia and South Korea opened in Seoul on Monday and will be underway until December 4.

The South Korean side noted that Serbia was the only Balkan country with which it was negotiating such an agreement, which demonstrates the importance Seoul attaches to developing comprehensive bilateral relations, the Serbian Ministry of Internal and External Trade said in a statement.

The talks will address ten different sectors, including tariff concessions, rules of origin, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property and economic cooperation.

A future agreement will represent an important step towards advancement and institutional regulation of bilateral economic cooperation, enable greater transparency in economic relations and help create the conditions for Serbian exports to the demanding South Korean market.

Increased competitiveness of Serbian exports is expected to spur growth of goods trade, the ministry said.