Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan visited Beijing, China from December 11 to 12 and held a Korea-China Trade Ministers’ Meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. This meeting was the first standalone meeting in seven years since 2018 and was held a month after the APEC Summit.
During the meeting, the two countries discussed follow-up measures to the Korea-China summit and economic and trade cooperation plans. They agreed to enhance cooperation to expand trade and mutual investment between the two countries and discussed ways to expand service trade. They also agreed to hold a Korea-China FTA Joint Committee to review the implementation status of the FTA and seek ways to improve its implementation.
The two countries agreed to promote local economic revitalization cooperation and discussed ways to activate investment cooperation based on the Korea-China Industrial Cooperation Complex. They also decided to continue communication to facilitate the introduction of key supply chain items such as rare earth elements and to hold regular meetings between director-level trade channels to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts arising from trade remedy measures.
The two sides reaffirmed the importance of a rules-based multilateral trading system centered on the WTO and agreed to continue cooperation based on regional frameworks such as APEC and RCEP. After the meeting, they signed the ‘2026 Key Cooperation Items between the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce,’ and plan to continue economic and trade cooperation smoothly based on this agreement.