The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Monday that it will hold free trade negotiations with six Central American countries in Seoul, for three days starting from Tuesday. 

Since declaring the launch of free trade talks with the six countries last June, South Korea, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica have held three rounds of negotiations until last month.
 
The ministry said the previous negotiations focused on products, services and investment, rules of origin, customs, government procurement, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade.
 
South Korean officials expressed hope that the participants at the upcoming talks will be able to narrow their differences on details related to products, communication, e-commerce, investment and rules of origin.
 
The six countries’ combined gross domestic product(GDP) stood at 220-point-two billion U.S. dollars as of last year and GDP per capita was estimated at an average of some five-thousand-793 dollars. The six countries' annual trade volume was estimated to be between four and five billion dollars.