South Korea and the European Union started their first round of free trade talks Monday. Chief negotiators Kim Han-soo for South Korea and Ignacio Garcia Bercero for the EU smiled and shook hands across a table at the Seoul hotel where they and their teams will meet for five days. The effort by South Korea and the 27-member EU comes amid a flurry of bilateral free trade agreements and negotiations. South Korea reached a landmark deal last month with the United States and has concluded other agreements as well, including a group accord with nine of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong, formally announcing the launch of the talks Sunday, called opening up his trade-dependent country's market «a matter of survival.» EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, speaking to reporters Sunday in Seoul with Kim, said bilateral free trade agreements do not contradict efforts to forge a multilateral deal under the WTO, but helped fill key gaps even as a global accord remains the prime goal.
