Korea-New Zealand 5th FTA Joint Committee Meeting Held: "Origin Criteria Conversion Completed"

Discussion on Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Cooperation and Strategies for Our Experts' Advancement to New Zealand

Kyung-sik Lee, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Negotiator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. (Image source=Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it held the 5th Korea-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Joint Committee meeting via video conference on the 15th with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The FTA between the two countries came into effect on December 20, 2015. Marking its 6th year of enforcement this year, export tariffs on 96.2% of items to New Zealand have been eliminated. Starting next year, all items will be exported tariff-free.

This is a comprehensive FTA that not only ensures a high level of market opening but also stipulates cooperation in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors, as well as support for the advancement of our specialized workforce into New Zealand.

At this Joint Committee meeting, the two countries discussed trends in trade policies and reviewed the status of FTA implementation, including changes in trade and investment between the two sides since the FTA came into effect.

Both countries highly appreciated the extension on the 2nd of this month of the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agreement concluded under the Korea-New Zealand FTA.

With the extension of the agreement, the New Zealand language study program for students from our rural agricultural and fishing communities will continue to operate, and opportunities for our experts working in six fields, including fisheries import risk assessment, to receive technical training in New Zealand have also expanded.

The two countries agreed to promptly complete the conversion of product-specific rules of origin (PSR) to enhance convenience for export-import companies.

Since the Harmonized System (HS) Code for international standardized product classification is revised every five years, it is necessary to convert the product-specific rules of origin accordingly (HS 2007 → HS 2017).

They also discussed revitalizing the advancement of our specialized workforce into New Zealand.

Our side proposed expanding the list of occupations eligible for temporary employment entry visas for professionals and increasing the working holiday quota, which currently stands at 3,000 people.

When the FTA was concluded, the two countries agreed to issue New Zealand work visas valid for up to three years to our specialized workforce engaged in 10 occupations, including food engineers.

The two countries plan to conduct more detailed discussions through the Services Committee in the future.

Lee Kyung-sik, FTA Negotiator at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "Based on the discussions at the 5th Joint Committee, we will strive to enhance convenience for export-import companies and enable our specialized workforce to actively advance into New Zealand."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.