South Korea's successful push for global trade liberalisation deals is boosting the momentum behind its talks on free-trade agreements (FTA) with China and Japan. South Korea's FTA with the EU, which was finalised in October 2010, was approved by the EU Parliament in February; it will come into force in July. The prospects for South Korea's FTA with the US being ratified in both countries are better than ever, with a supplemental agreement on bilateral car trade-a major sticking point against ratification since the FTA was signed in June 2007-being formally signed in February 2011.

Given the provisional success of its FTA with the US, South Korea is now coaxing China and Japan into forging similar deals. The case for bilateral agreements with China and Japan and even a trilateral FTA among all three is strengthening in light of the former's relentless economic rise and the latter's growing desire to sign trade agreements. South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance stated in February that talks on regional economic integration would make headway this year, seeing a common market among the three East Asian economies as only a matter of timing, given the compelling benefits of removing tariff barriers for the three economies. Intra-regional trade in East Asia has plenty of room for growth. According to the strategy and finance ministry's data, trade between the three countries was the equivalent of 22% of their combined worldwide trade in 2008, far lower than 63.9% within the EU and 39.9% between the countries that signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).