Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Annual report on the implementation of the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and South Korea has been provisionally applied since July 2011. It is the first of a new generation FTA, characterised by its far-reaching and comprehensive nature. It is also the EU's first trade deal with an Asian country.

After a little more than a year of its operation it is still too early to show the full impact of the FTA as the provisions on the tariff and non-tariff measures liberalisation, as well as the measures on services and investment, will come into force over a longer timeframe. However, major tariff dismantling has already taken place and the positive effects on the EU's exports are already being felt on the ground.

The purpose of this report is to comply with the obligations deriving from Regulation (EU) No 511/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2011 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States and the Republic of Korea. According to Article 13(1) of the said Regulation, the Commission shall make public an annual report on the application and implementation of the Agreement. Furthermore, Article 3(3) stipulates that the Commission shall present an annual monitoring report to the European Parliament and the Council on updated statistics on imports from Korea of products in the sensitive sectors.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)100: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:100:FIN

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