China and South Korea kicked off the 13th round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in Beijing on September 22.

The five-day negotiation covered wide-ranging areas such as tax reductions on trade of goods, the opening up of service sectors, further bilateral investment and the possibility of decreasing trade remedies and technical barriers.

China and South Korea officially launched FTA talks in May 2012. Leaders of the two countries jointly announced in July that they would try to conclude the negotiations by the end of 2014.

China and South Korea have experienced two decades of booming bilateral trade. Two-way trade surpassed $270 billion in 2013, nearly 50 times the volume in 1992, when the two nations established diplomatic relations.