President Yoon Suk Yeol attended the signing ceremony for a free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the Philippines on Thursday, a deal expected to boost South Korean car exports to the Southeast Asian nation.

The FTA was signed by the two countries' trade ministers on the margins of annual summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as Yoon and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. watched.

It is the fifth bilateral FTA South Korea has signed with an ASEAN member, following those with Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, according to the presidential office. The five countries together account for 91 percent of the ASEAN market.

Under the agreement, the 5 percent tariff on South Korean cars will be removed as soon as the FTA takes effect, while the tariff of up to 30 percent placed on car parts will be lifted within five years. Tariffs on electric and hybrid vehicles will also be removed within five years.

"We expect the export competitiveness of our cars to be greatly improved in the Philippine auto market, which has until now been dominated by Japan," Choi Sang-mok, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, told reporters. "Our government will continue to expand FTAs with promising markets and actively support the development of new markets for our businesses."

The bilateral FTA, combined with the existing South Korea-ASEAN FTA and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, will lead to the removal of tariffs on 94.8 percent of all items South Korea imports from the Philippines, while the Southeast Asian nation will remove tariffs on 96.5 percent of all imports from South Korea.

Source: Yonhap News Agency