Signal Korea and Chile agree to modernize FTA, restart joint trade committee after decade

Summary

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast agreed at a summit to pursue modernization and improvement of the Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement. As part of that, the two countries decided to restart their joint Free Trade Committee for the first time in ten years, since 2016. The leaders also agreed to set up a new ministerial-level cooperation body focused on critical minerals supply chains. Copper and lithium were named as resources essential to secondary battery and other advanced-industry supply chains. The agreement suggests that diversifying critical minerals supply chains is a substantive driver behind the renewed FTA talks between the two countries.