Australia wants FTA with South Korea: Gillard

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she plans to discuss a free-trade agreement tomorrow with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and is confident the two nations will complete a deal.

“I am committed to building Australia’s relationship with Korea,” Gillard said in a speech yesterday in Seoul, according to a copy of the address on the prime minister’s website. “This is a partnership full of promise and potential.”

South Korea is Australia’s fourth-largest trading partner, a nation with a “highly complementary” economy and a consumer of its liquefied natural gas, Gillard said. Korea Gas Corp is a partner in the $16 billion Gladstone LNG project in Queensland state led by Santos Ltd, Australia’s third-largest oil producer, while Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. have become “household names,” she said.

 

“Our trade links are intense and highly complementary,” Gillard said in her speech.