South Korea, China and Japan will hold their ninth round of working-level negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA).
 
The meeting will be held in Japan for five days beginning Monday as the Seoul-Beijing FTA is set to take effect on Sunday.
 
South Korea will focus not only on goods, services and investment, but also on customs clearances, sanitary inspections and technical barriers to trade.
 
Yoo Myung-hee, director-general for FTA negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will lead the South Korean delegation.
 
Meetings of expert groups focusing on some 20 sectors, including those on tariff reduction schedules, will also be held.

The three nations have so far held eight rounds of negotiations after launching efforts to reach a comprehensive, high-level deal in 2012. They agreed at a trilateral summit in November to accelerate the negotiations.