China, South Korea, Japan to hold 4th round talks on FTA

China, South Korea and Japan will hold the fourth round of talks for the trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in Seoul next month, the South Korean trade ministry said Tuesday. Delegations from the three Asian countries will gather in Seoul to exchange views on the trilateral free trade pact from March 4 to 7, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. During the fourth round of negotiations, the three countries will hold working-level meetings on goods, services, investment, competition, general rules and intellectual property rights, while exchanging views among experts over environment, government procurement, e-commerce and food areas, the ministry said. The three Asian nations have seen increasingly close ties in economy and trade, and have become important partners and markets to each other. In 2012, combined gross domestic product of the three nations reached 14.3 trillion U.S. dollars, taking up about 20 percent of the world total and 70 percent of Asia's total. The combined import and export volume of the three were 5.4 trillion dollars, or 35 percent of the world total.