Peru-Korea FTA to take effect in April 2011

Lima, Jan. 30 (ANDINA). The bilateral free trade deal between South Korea and Peru would come into force in April 2011 following the completion of the legal review of the agreement text.

"We have completed the legal review of the text and we have our version in Spanish. Now we will just wait for the Koreans to finish the translation and then set a date for the signing of the agreement," Peruvian Deputy Trade Minister Carlos Posada told Andina.

Posada said the signing will probably take place in Peru before March.

"The FTA with Korea would take effect in April, for that to happen, both parties must complete the internal procedures and in the case of Peru, this process should not take more than two months," he said.

The signing ceremony to mark the end of trade negotiations was held in November 2010 in Seoul in the presence of Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

Annual trade between Peru and South Korea currently stands at $1.4 billion, including nearly $749 million in exports to the Asian country.

Peru’s government said it expects bilateral trade to expand five-fold by 2016 as trade between South Korea and Chile did following the signing of a free trade agreement by those two countries in 2002.