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

1 July 2014 marked the third anniversary of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and its Member States and the Republic of Korea, which has been provisionally applied since July 2011. It is the first of a new generation of FTAs, characterised by its far-reaching and comprehensive nature. It is also the EU's first trade deal with an Asian country.

This is the third Annual Report on the implementation of the FTA, in accordance with the provisions of 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 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 and those sectors to which monitoring has been extended. This report therefore combines these two reporting requirements.

The report also gives an overview of the activities of the various committees and working groups established under the FTA to monitor the implementation of the agreement. Since most of these committees and working groups met in the second half of 2014, this report covers the period July 2013 until December 2014, as far as the activities of the FTA implementation bodies are concerned.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)139: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:139:FIN

ESO: Background information: Reports: Trade as a powerful engine for growth and jobs in Europe http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-reports-trade-as-a-powerful-engine-for-growth-and-jobs-in-europe/

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