China and South Korea have concluded substantive negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) on Monday, which covered 17 fields including e-commerce and government procurement.

The agreement would remove tariffs on 90 percent of all products on bilateral trade. The China-South Korea FTA has the widest coverage and biggest trade volume among all the FTA talks that were undergoing for China, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye confirmed the conclusion of the talks in a meeting Monday on the sidelines of the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, Xinhua added.

"The establishment of the China-South Korea free trade area is of landmark importance and will effectively promote regional integration of the Asia-Pacific," Xi said during the meeting.

Park said the setting up of the free trade area is good news for global economic recovery as well as the development and prosperity of Asia. She said South Korea will continue to make efforts to implement the agreement as soon as possible.

Li Xiangyang, vice director with the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the deal will bring more opportunities to both Chinese and South Korean enterprises.

Chinese enterprises doing business in Korea will enjoy more trade preferences while dealing with Western counties since South Korea has signed FTAs with both the US and the European Union, he said.

Tian Chunsheng, a research fellow with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the agreement will provide a more convenient market for both Chinese and South Korean enterprises.

"Chinese e-commerce companies and cell phone companies would have opportunities to compete with their South Korean counterparts," Tian said.

The agreement could add between 0.92 percent and 1.25 percent to South Korea's GDP in five years, with shipping and automobile sector firms being the largest beneficiaries, An Ki-tae, an analyst at Woori Investment and Securities, told Reuters.

But South Korean civic groups said the agreement would destroy their country's agriculture sector and mid-sized businesses, Yonhap reported.

In 2013, two-way trade between two countries reached $274 billion, and the leaders have promised to increase this to $300 billion by 2015.

An RMB clearing bank opened by the Bank of Communications of China officially opened in Seoul on November 6. The yuan clearing business in Seoul will aid cross-border transactions among companies and financial institutions from China and South Korea through the yuan.

However, the future of the free trade zone was difficult to predict as South Korea will also consider its ties with the US, Tian said.

Apart from the economic benefits to both China and South Korea, the deal could also put pressure on Japan as the China-Japan-South Korea FTA has failed to make any progress.