Input 2021.03.14 13:52
US investment in Korea turned to decline
Attracted $42.9 billion in investment in the U.S. for 9 years after the FTA went into effect
2.2 times higher than before fermentation
Last year, the ninth year of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the amount of trade in goods between the two countries decreased in four years due to the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). US investment in Korea also declined for the first time since 2016.
According to the’Trade Trends in the 9th Year of the Effectiveness of the Korea-US FTA,’ announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 14th, the amount of trade in goods between the two countries last year was estimated at $131.6 billion, down 2.7% from the previous year.
South Korea’s exports to the United States rose 1.1% to 74.1 billion dollars. This is because exports of computers (104.2%) and semiconductors (25.3%) showed good results. Accordingly, Korea’s share of the US import market rose 0.2 percentage points to 3.3%.
Imports from the United States declined 7.1 percent to $57.5 billion. The fact that imports of U.S. crude oil (-40.0%), etc. significantly decreased, had an impact. The US share of the Korean import market was 12.3%, the same as last year, the second largest after China (23.3%).
As exports increased and imports declined, the trade balance with the US recorded a surplus of $16.6 billion, an increase of $5.2 billion from 2019.
The amount of investment between the two countries also decreased. Korea’s investment in the US (accumulated in the third quarter) was $9.560 billion in remittances, down 7.6% from the same period last year. According to the reporting standard, it decreased by 12.5%. In the nine years after the FTA came into force, investment in the United States amounted to $89.260 billion, an increase of 3.1 times compared to before it took effect.
The amount of US investment in Korea also declined for the first time since 2016. The reported amount was $5.3 billion, a decrease of 22.6% compared to the previous year, and the amount of arrival was $1.03 billion, a decrease of 26.4%.
In the nine years after the FTA came into force, the amount of investment from the United States reached 42.9 billion dollars, an increase of 2.2 times from before the entry into force. An official from the Ministry of Industry explained, “Recently, US investment in Korea is expanding from traditional industries such as transportation machinery to new industries related to the fourth industry such as semiconductor, cloud, and e-commerce.” Last year, it produced photoresist for extreme ultraviolet (EUV), which is an export-regulated item in Japan, and expanded the data center of a global IT company to expand services in the Asia-Pacific region.