The European Union's chief negotiator in free trade talks with South Korea said Friday the two sides made significant headway this week, but that contentious issues such as tariffs and automobiles will require "political efforts."
 
"I can say that in this round we have achieved an enormous amount of progress in the negotiations," Ignacio Garcia Bercero told reporters on the final day of session that began Monday.

He said the two sides have now either reached agreement or were near agreement on about 70 percent of the issues under negotiation, including antidumping and safeguards, dispute settlement, subsidies and intellectual property.

"But the 30 percent which is left is extremely difficult," he said, citing tariffs, automobiles and televisions, all of which were not discussed during the current round by mutual agreement.

"The issue of tariffs is going to require political efforts on both sides," he said.

Garcia Bercero said the EU respects South Korean sensitivities in the agricultural sector but expects South Korea to understand European sensitivities on automobiles.

The two sides launched the talks in May and had hoped to reach an agreement by the end of last year. Difference over tariffs and other issues have stymied progress, and this week's round is the sixth so far.

The process became bogged down by what the Europeans see as Seoul's protective stance toward some industries, including automobiles, specifically regarding what Brussels sees as non-tariff barriers.

South Korea, for its part, has taken issue with Europe's position on rules governing the origin of certain goods.

At the end of the fourth round in Seoul in October, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade acknowledged a "big gap in perceptions on auto standards" between the two sides. A fifth round subsequently took place in Brussels late last year.

Garcia Bercero, however, appeared buoyed by this week's progress and reiterated the importance of reaching a deal, calling it the "most important FTA that both Korea and the European Union have negotiated so far."

South Korea and the United States, the world's largest economy, reached a free trade agreement last year that is pending legislative approval in both countries.

The EU and South Korea are major commercial partners, doing nearly $80 billion of trade in 2006. The EU is South Korea's second-biggest trading partner, behind China but ahead of the United States.

South Korea is the EU's eighth-largest trading partner, while the EU is the biggest foreign investor in South Korea.

Garcia Bercero also said no date has been set for the next, or seventh, round but that it may take place around April. He said it was impossible to predict when an agreement can be reached in the negotiations, which have no deadline.

South Korea and the U.S. negotiated their deal in the face of a deadline and only reached a conclusion at the last minute after a week of marathon talks in Seoul.