South Korea, UAE sign deal to slash import duties at leaders' summit (updated)

SK

29/05/2024 06:45

(Adds signing of trade deal, summit outcome)
    By Jack Kim
       SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - South Korea and the United
Arab Emirates signed a trade pact on Wednesday to sharply cut
import duties at a summit of their leaders that pledged closer
business and investment ties.
    Host South Korea welcomed the UAE's President Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with a traditional honour guard and
a flypast of air force jets.
    "The special bond between the two leaders serves as an
opportunity to deepen and advance the two countries' special
strategic partnership," the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol
said in a statement. 
    The summit, which follows Yoon's state visit last year to
Abu Dhabi, focused on energy and defence, as South Korea seeks
to tap the investment potential of the energy-rich Gulf state. 
    In its statement, Yoon's office said the UAE reaffirmed last
year's pledge of $30 billion in investment for South Korean
businesses, in areas from nuclear power and defence to hydrogen
and solar energy.
    The two sides also signed an agreement to boost investment
flows into future-focused sectors in South Korea's economy, it
added.
    The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company signed a letter of intent
for a South Korean company to build at least six LNG carriers
valued at about $1.5 billion, it said.
    The industry ministers formally signed a Comprehensive
Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) agreed in October that
will remove all tariffs on South Korean arms exports when it is
ratified, South Korea said.
    The UAE will also drop import duty on automobiles over the
next decade, during which South Korea's tariffs on crude oil
imports are to be removed.
    The deal will eventually scrap tariffs on more than 90% of
the imports of both.
    On Tuesday, Sheikh Mohammed met the leaders of some of South
Korea's top conglomerates including Jay Y. Lee of Samsung
Electronics, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Kim Dong-kwan of
Hanwha Group, which has emerged as a major defence contractor.
    No new arms deal was unveiled, but Yoon's office said both
aim to boost long-term co-operation of their defence industries.
    South Korea has signed a series of global defence equipment
contracts as part of its plans to become the world's
fourth-largest defence exporter by 2027.
    One such recent deal involves Poland, which seeks to bolster
its defences as a close neighbour of Ukraine, which is at war
with Russia.

 (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
 ((jack.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +822 6936 1455;))