New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS): India and South Korea set a bilateral trade target of $50 billion before 2030, as South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-Koo held talks with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The two mnisters held wide-ranging discussions covering the whole gamut of bilateral trade and investment-related aspects. They also agreed to impart fresh momentum to the discussions on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) upgradation negotiations and also promote extensive B2B interactions on trade and investment between industry leaders of the two countries, a Commerce and Industry Ministry statement said.

The two ministers agreed to address difficulties expressed by industry from both sides and instructed their respective negotiating teams to meet on a regular basis in order to conclude the CEPA upgradation negotiations, as soon as possible, in a time-bound manner, building upon support from relevant stakeholders, so as to try to achieve the target of $50 billion before 2030 which was agreed at the summit meeting in 2018.

These regular negotiations shall be a forum to discuss the difficulties of the business community from both countries and emerging trade-related issues including supply chain resilience. The ministers agreed to boost bilateral trade to achieve growth in a fair and balanced manner to the mutual advantage of both sides.

According to data from South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, bilateral trade in the first half (January-June) of 2021 was recorded at $10.97 billion, an increase of 38 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. South Korea's exports to India increased 38.5 per cent ($7.4 billion), imports increased 37.4 per cent ($3.6 billion), and the trade balance recorded a surplus of $3.8 billion.