Park Geun-hye (2nd from right) and Li Keqiang (3rd from left) attend a meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul.  The bilateral trade between China and South Korea grew 37-fold to $235.4bn in 2014, according to South Korean data.

Reuters
Seoul
 

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged yesterday to push for the ratification of their free trade deal and put it into effect by the end of the year, Park’s office said.
The South Korean parliament has begun a review of the pact, which could face tough scrutiny by liberal opposition concerned about the impact of a market opening to China’s agricultural  and fisheries products.
China’s National People’s Congress has also yet to approve it.
The deal, reached a year ago and signed in June, will eliminate tariffs on $73bn in South Korea’s exports to China and $42bn of its imports from China.
China is South Korea’s largest trading partner. South Korea is China’s third largest.
South Korea said China agreed yesterday to boost by 50% a quota on its investment in the Chinese stock and bond markets and to push for an early start of direct yuan-won trading in China under a separate agreement.
The two countries reached the agreement in Seoul on the sidelines of a meeting between their leaders as the global trade giants try to expand their business ties.  Under the agreement, China agreed to raise the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) quota on South Korea to 120 billion yuan ($18.99 billion) from 80 billion yuan now, South Korea’s finance ministry said in a
statement.
It would be the second-highest ceiling after Hong Kong that China has allocated for foreign countries, the ministry added.
China also agreed to set up a direct trading exchange market between the won and yuan under the China Foreign Exchange Trade System in the near future, the ministry said, without providing an exact date.
China and South Korea established diplomatic ties in 1992. Their bilateral trade grew 37-fold to $235.4bn in 2014 from $6.4bn then, according to South Korean data.  Li is on an official visit to South Korea and today will participate in the first three-way summit of South Korea, China and Japan in more than three years, joined by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.