Korea’s accumulated exports to China since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries has exceeded USD 1 trillion.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) announced today that Korea’s exports to China from 1992 to April 2013 reached USD 1.0041 trillion. The amount is higher than Korea’s total imports from Japan from 1965, which is USD 1.0021 trillion.

Accumulated imports from China stood at USD 696.9 billion.

The most exported item was semiconductors (USD 100.683 billion) and most imported product was computers (USD 47.053 billion).

Exports of flat panel displays and sensors (USD 89.818 billion), oil products (68.63 billion), wireless communication devices (USD 49.272 billion) and textiles (USD 48.487 billion) followed.

Regarding imports, semiconductors (USD 44.313 billion) and flat panel displays and sensors (USD 24.025 billion) ranked 2nd and 5th, respectively. Imports of steel plates (USD 38.635 billion) and clothing (USD 33.555 billion) were also high.

The trade surplus from exports to China since the establishment of diplomatic ties reached USD 344.57 billion (KRW 388 trillion), which is larger than the Korean government budget of KRW 342 trillion.

In terms of investment, Korea (USD 56.5 billion) invested more than China (USD 4.46 billion) did, by 12 times.

Korea’s travel balance showed a deficit every year from 1988 to reach an accumulated deficit of USD 11 billion as of last year, with 39,865,417 Koreans visiting China whereas only 1,617,424 Chinese tourists came to Korea.

Recently, China has been shifting its trade structure from simple processing industries to the domestic market. However, Korea depends highly on the processing industry at a 70 percent ratio, resulting in added value created from exports to China reaching not even 30 percent of the total exports, according to FKI.

An FKI insider noted that a strategy is needed to enter the Chinese domestic market and service markets, shifting away from processing trade.


Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (June 24, 2013)

** This article was translated from the Korean.