Brussels, 02/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - When welcoming entry into force of the trade and cooperation agreement between the Union and the Republic of Korea, on Sunday 1 April (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.6), for an initial five-year duration then tacitly extendable, European Commissioner Chris Patten, made the following statement: "it has taken five long years to ratify this agreement but I am very pleased that the EU and Korea's relationship is now established on a firm legal footing. In the meantime, Korea has become an increasingly import partner for the EU. It is Europe's third largest export market in Asia, and Europe is the largest investor in Korea. The agreement strengthens the scope for political dialogue at an exciting time for the Korean Peninsula. President Kim Dae Jung has played an inspirational role in the search for peace and stability in the North East Asia region, and the EU strongly supports his engagement policy, as the Stockholm European Council demonstrated".
This agreement was published in full in the Official Journal L.90, at the same time as the joint declarations (including those relating to the intensification of the political dialogue). You may recall that a wide range of areas is covered by this cooperation, notably industry, justice and home affairs, science and technology, culture shipbuilding - "to promote fair and competitive market conditions" (chap 8) -, protection of intellectual property, trade etc..