FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN VIETNAM AND KOREA (VKFTA)

15/ 03/ 2022

Introduction

The Vietnam - Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) was signed on May 5, 2015 and officially took effect on December 20, 2015. In comparison to the ASEAN-Korea FTA (AKFTA), Vietnam and Korea give more incentives to each other in the fields of goods, services and investment in the VKFTA. However, VKFTA does not replace AKFTA, but both of these FTAs are in effect and businesses can choose to use which FTA is more beneficial.

Progress

August 6, 2012: started negotiations,
August 2012 - December 2014: conducted 8 rounds of official negotiations and 8 mid-term meetings, at the level of the leader of the negotiating team,
December 10, 2014: signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the conclusion of VKFTA negotiations,
March 29, 2015: initialed signing the VKFTA, towards the official signing of the Agreement within the first 6 months of 2015,
May 5, 2015: officially signed the VKFTA

Agreement text

Full text of Agreement

Preamble

Chapter 1: General provision

Chapter 2: National treatment and Market access on goods

Tariff schedule of Vietnam (section A, section B)

Tariff schedule of Korea (section A, section B)

Chapter 3: Rules of Origin and Origin procedure