South Korea posts largest trade surplus with Vietnam in 2022

[Photo by MK DB]

South Korea is experiencing a change in its international trade relationship with Vietnam as trade with the Southeast Asian country showed the biggest surplus last year.

Korea’s trade surplus with Vietnam came to $34.25 billion in 2022 on exports of $60.98 billion and imports of $26.72 billion, data published by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday showed.

This put Vietnam as Korea’s largest partner in terms of trade surplus. It is the first time for the Southeast Asian country to top the ranking. The two countries celebrated 30 years of diplomatic relations last year.

The second largest trade surplus for Korea came from the U.S. at $28.04 billion. Hong Kong followed at $27.79 billion, India at $9.98 billion, and Singapore at $8.86 billion.

Korea’s exports to the U.S. rose for a sixth year in 2022, growing 14.5 percent to $109.82 billion. It is the first time for Korea’s shipments to the U.S. to top $100 billion.

Exports to India jumped 21.0 percent to a record $18.88 billion. Meanwhile, Hong Kong, which has been the top trade surplus country for Korea from 2019 until 2021 moved down to third place.

China also moved down. It had ranked as the largest partner for Korea in terms of trade surplus in 2018, but moved down to second place in 2019 and third place in 2020 and 2021, then slipped to 22nd in 2022.

Korea’s trade surplus with China was only $1.25 billion last year after exports tumbled due to Covid-19 lockdowns across China. Korea’s imports from China, meanwhile, surged on the sharp rise in prices of industrial resources, such as lithium.

Korea was the sixth largest exporting country in the world, based on January-September figures of $683.9 billion. But the trade deficit also climbed sharply to an all-time high of $47.2 billion as imports surged on high energy prices.

This also led to a change in the rankings of countries with which Korea has a trade deficit.

Saudi Arabia topped with a trade deficit of $36.71 billion to Korea. Australia was second with a $26.09 billion shortfall. The trade deficit with the two energy-rich countries widened last year as prices of oil and natural gas jumped.