Brussels, 06/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Despite the failure of 2nd April, Lee Hey-min, the South Korean vie minister for trade stated that Seoul is hoping to finalise a bilateral free trade agreement with the EU by the end of May. Mr Lee expressed the wish to hold another ministerial meeting to resolve questions still pending. During the G20 event, the Commissioner for trade, Catherine Ashton and the South Korean minister Kim Jong-hoon did not managed to smooth out all the differences between the Europeans and South Koreans on the two sensitive dossiers of duty drawbacks and rules of origin. Mr Lee confirmed that Seoul would stick to its position on duty drawback, which enables South Korean companies using imported components to manufacture products its exports in order to obtain import duty repayments on these components. The EU has banned this practice in agreements with Mexico and Chile. It affirmed to the press that, “if the scheme if rejected, it severely undermines the effect of tariff reduction”. (E.H./trans/rh)