Chinese e-commerce firms are considered as big winners in the China-South Korea free trade agreement, as cross-country business opportunities are now becoming more available for the said companies, according to a China Business News report.
The report said that the agreement will surely benefit several sectors, particularly pointing out the e-commerce and courier industries.
With the free trade agreement, which was signed on June 1, tariffs or import taxes on body care products such as shampoo, body wash, shower gel, skincare and cosmetics items will be decreased by 20 to 30 percent within the next five years.
Moreover, tariffs of 10 percent on oral care products are expected to be abolished within 10 years.
On the same day the agreement was inked, NetEase CEO William Ding and Jumei Youpin co-founder and CEO Leo Chen went to South Korea to establish business deals with the suppliers of Korean cosmetics products.
On June 3, Ding has engaged in a meeting with It's Skin's top executives. The Korean firm is a subsidiary of Han Bul Cosmetics, one of the three major cosmetics businesses in Korea, a CBN report stated.
In China, the Prestige Creme D'escargot snail cream of It's Skin is the best-selling cosmetics item sold over the Internet.
Following the tariff elimination on Korean cosmetics, more of such commodities are predicted to make a foray into the lucrative Chinese market, boosting online sales of cosmetics in the two countries.
In a South Korean news report published on May 18, the import of South Korean cosmetics products in China has reached a $131-million mark in the first quarter of 2015, a whooping 273.2-percent year-on-year increase.
South Korea is the country's largest source of imported cosmetics products next to France.
Moreover, through the free trade agreement, tariffs on 92 percent of Chinese products are set to be eliminated 20 years after the implementation.
Meanwhile, China will get rid of tariffs on 91 percent of all imported South Korean commodities.