South Korea FTA REPORTER: And now to South Korea where the free trade agreement with the United States comes into effect today. It's the biggest such agreement for Washington in 16 years, and comes as Seoul actively tries to open its markets to other trading partners. Since April 2010, South Korea has held four rounds of free trade talks with Turkey. Currently, South Korea also has free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore. And in July last year, it signed an FDA with the 27-member European Union. South Korea is the only Asian country to have implemented free trade agreements with both the United States and the Eurozone. Officials in South Korea are hopeful the free trade agreement with the US will create more than 300,000 jobs and boost economic growth over the next 10 years. But not everyone is happy with the deal. The BBC's Lucy Williamson has more. LUCY WILLIAMSON: After six years of negotiating, ratifying, and protesting, South Korea's free trade agreement with the US has arrived. Starting today, American products here in Seoul should start to look a bit cheaper. And in five years time, 95% of trade should be tariff-free. So for lovers of American brands here in Seoul's main shopping district, how real will those savings be? One survey in a local newspaper found that while some companies were planning on importing more American products, only a quarter were going to pass on the full reduction to their customers. [APPLAUSE] But for Korea, the real value of this deal lies in access to customers in the US. South Korea's share of the US market has fallen, something the trade minister said he hoped the deal would offset. BARK TAE-HO: Given the current Eurozone crisis, the timing of the KORUS FTA could not be any better. With the KORUS FTA, I have every confidence that the trade sector will pick up, and the business communities of both Korea and the US will enjoy the benefits of this win-win agreement.