S. Korea, EU steer clear of cars at trade talks

South Korean and EU envoys steered clear of the politically-sensitive topic of cars in a week of trade talks that ended yesterday, but made major progress in other sectors, the chief European negotiator said.

Ignacio Garcia Bercero said 70 per cent of the deal, which studies have said would boost the $80 billion bilateral trade by 25 per cent, was done, but what remained was "a very significant number of difficult issues" such as tariffs and automobiles.

"We've come to the conclusion that these issues, which clearly are the more difficult in the negotiations, will require political steer," Mr Garcia Bercero told reporters. "It was not going to be possible to reach agreement at this stage."

He said significant progress was made in other sectors, including agreement on labour standards, anti-dumping measures and a mechanism to remedy trade disputes. The two sides also narrowed differences on the services sector and investment.

"We're convinced that we'll be able to achieve a very ambitious result on services and investment," he said.

"Of course, I would not hide that we still have a very significant number of difficult issues outstanding," he said.

The two sides launched talks last May, shortly after South Korea struck a free trade pact with the US, but they failed to meet an end-of-2007 goal to finalise an agreement.