中韩经贸关系经过10多年的发展发生了一些变化，过去主要以互补与合作为主，目前随着中国经济的发展和科技的进步，以及韩国经济形势的变化，两国在科技水平、研发能力、商品生产和销售、产业结构等方面的差距逐步缩小，在出口地区结构、主要出口商品、技术水平等方面的竞争日趋激烈。在这一形势下，中韩两国有必要探索新的合作模式。而从地区经济发展来看，中韩经济关系不断加深，中日经济关系稳步发展，东北亚区域经济合作却多年来徘徊不前。在此情况下，制订并实施双边自由贸易协定（FTA）成为促进两国经贸交流与合作更健康、稳定、持久发展的重要方式之一。
Since China and ROK normalized diplomatic relations about 15 years ago，the economic and trade relations between these two countries have somewhat changed. In the past，they were apparently complementary and corporative. In recent years however，with rapid development of Chinese economy and technology，and changing situation of ROK economy，the gap between China and ROK in such fields as productive technology，R&D，production，sales，and industry structure etc. is narrowing. Therefore，both China and ROK face the fierce competition in the aspects of major export regions，export goods，product technology and quality. Moreover，many factors point to the reality that the situation will continue in a foreseeable future. In the area of regional economic cooperation，the bilateral economic relations between China and ROK as well as China and Japan have developed，but the regional economic cooperation in Northeast Asia is bogged down. Considering these circumstances，China and ROK should find a new way of economic cooperation，and a bilateral FTA （Free Trade Arrangement） may be an option.
