Ending more than 14 months of tough negotiations, Korea and the United States reached a free trade agreement on April 2 2007 that would drastically boost their exports. Korean President Roh Moo-hyun hailed the deal as a "stepping stone for another economic leap forward in the nation's push to join the ranks of advanced countries." Overall, the agreement will eliminate nearly 85 percent of each side's tariffs on industrial goods immediately, with the remaining tariffs to be phased out over three to 15 years.