Bilateral trade between Korea and EU has been increasing with the exception of the period of the global financial crisis (2009) and Korea has enjoyed trade surplus since 1997. At the time when negotiations were launched for the Korea-EU FTA in 2007, EU was Korea’s second largest trading partner and the site of the most significant trade surplus gain for Korea, whose trade balance amounted to USD 19.1 billion. Since the global financial crisis, Korea’s trade surplus with EU, however, has been gradually decreasing. Korea’s import from EU increased by 21.3% per year in the period of 2009–2011, while its export to EU increased only at an annual rate of 9.3% in the same period of time. In 2012, Korea’s export to EU was USD 49.4 billion, while its import from EU was reported to be USD 53.6 billion.