A landmark free trade agreement between the European Union and South Korea took effect Friday.

Under the deal, Seoul and Brussels would eliminate or phase out tariffs on 96 percent of EU goods and 99 percent of South Korean products within three years.

Ignacio Garcia Bercero, the EU's chief negotiator on the deal, said at a seminar in Seoul earlier this month that the FTA is very much the type of trade agreement that the EU would wish to conclude with other countries in the region. The deal is the EU's first trade pact in Asia.