SEOUL, Sept 14: South Korea said on Friday that it would make “utmost efforts” to narrow differences with the European Union during a third round of talks next week on a free trade agreement.

“The talks this time will become give-and-take bargaining sessions, and both sides are likely to actively explore each other’s negotiating strategies,” said Kim Han-Soo, chief of the 140-member delegation.

“We will make utmost efforts to narrow differences on some sticky issues at the upcoming talks,” Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.

The two sides will meet on Monday to Friday in Brussels after a first round in May in Seoul and a second session in Brussels in July.

After the last round, the EU urged Asia’s third largest economy to make a more ambitious

offer.

Both sides have exchanged initial tariff proposals. The EU has offered to eliminate or phase out all its import tariffs on South Korean goods within seven years, and remove tariffs on 80 per cent of them within three years.

South has offered to remove tariffs on most EU goods within seven years, according to sources quoted by Yonhap.—APP