S. Korea calls for efforts to promote essential business travel amid pandemic

SEOUL, May 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Friday it has agreed with a number of countries to ease cross-border travel regulations for essential business officials and maintain the global supply chain without undermining the global efforts to tackle the new coronavirus.

Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee participated in the virtual meeting with her counterparts from Singapore, Canada, Australia and New Zealand earlier in the day and adopted a joint statement on taking actions to allow essential travel of people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The countries vowed to "establish guidelines to allow, on an exceptional basis, essential cross-border travel for purposes such as maintaining global supply chains," without undermining quarantine efforts to tackle the spread of the virus, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Seoul has been expanding efforts to enable at least entrepreneurs to make essential business trips abroad as part of efforts to minimize the economic fallout of the contagious disease.

Earlier this week, Seoul's foreign ministry said five Chinese cities and provinces will start allowing expedited entry for South Korean businesspeople in May, in exception to entry restrictions enacted due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The participants also agreed to refrain from introducing any new trade regulations on products that are deemed to be essential, such as medical supplies and foodstuffs.

colin@yna.co.kr
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