Download ASEAN became Korea`s second largest trading partner under FTA

11:00 AM KST, May. 31
ASEAN became Korea’s second largest trading partner
under FTA
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on May 31 that in a decade since the
Korea-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement entered into
force in 2007, the region has become Korea’s second largest trading partner with trade in
goods and services and investment all expanding.
June 1, 2017 marks the 10-year anniversary of the entry into force of the Korea-ASEAN FTA.
The trade pace has been mutually beneficial. Between 2007 and 2016, trade in goods between
Korea and 10 ASEAN nations has grown an average of 5.7 percent every year -- 3.3
percentage points higher than the pace of Korea’s total trade growth at 2.4 percent. Trade in
services advanced 6.6 percent on average a year during the period, while Korea’s investment
in the region soared more than fivefold.
The ASEAN region has become Korea’s second largest trading partner after China from the
fifth in the past 10 years. The Ministry expects the significance of the region as a partner for
economic cooperation to become even greater in the changing international trade
environment.
The Korea-ASEAN trade volume stood at USD 119 billion, which represents 13 percent of
Korea’s total trade volume of $902 billion -- up from 9.9 percent in 2007. Vietnam is the
largest trade partner among the 10 member countries with goods worth $45.1 billion
exchanged in 2016, followed by Singapore ($19.3 billion), Malaysia ($15 billion), Indonesia
($14.9 billion), Thailand ($11 billion), the Philippines ($11 billion), Myanmar ($1.2 billion),
Cambodia ($813 million), Brunei ($779 million), and Laos ($149 million).
The ASEAN is Korea’s important export market. Korea’s exports to the region jumped an
average of 7.5 percent a year between 2007 and 2016 -- 4.2 percentage points higher than to
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the annual growth in total exports at 3.3-percent. During the same period, shipments to China
increased by an average of 4.7 percent a year and those to the United States by 4.2 percent
while those to Japan and the European Union contracted 0.9 percent and 2 percent,
respectively.
Shipments to the region made up 15 percent of total exports in 2016 -- up from 10.4 percent
in 2007, making the ASEAN as a region Korea’s second largest export market. In 2016,
shipments to Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia represented 70.6 percent of exports to the
ASEAN. The top five importers of Korean goods are to Vietnam (43.8 percent, $32.7 billion),
Singapore (16.7 percent, $12.5 billion), Malaysia (10.1 percent, $7.3 billion), the Philippines
(9.8 percent, $7.3 billion), and Indonesia (8.9 percent, $6.6 billion). Korea’s share of the
ASEAN market increased to 7 percent from 5 percent. This reflects the region’s growing
preference for Korean goods, and the growth of the market could further benefit Korea’s
exports.
< Trade between Korea and ASEAN >
(Unit: $100 million, year-on-year change %)
900
791
800
820
846
748
745
450
443
312
298
302
2014
2015
2016
718
700
600
532
493
500
400
321
297
387
331
409
410
341
531
533
534
441
300
272
287
2012
2013
187
200
100
520
23
53
84
69
91
2008
2009
2010
0
2006
2007
Trade Volume
2011
Export
Import
Main exports include semiconductors, petroleum products, and wireless communication
devices. Before the FTA took effect, Korea sold mainly semiconductors. Under the trade pact,
large Korean corporations set up manufacturing bases in the ASEAN region and exports
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diversified with shipments of intermediary goods including wireless communication devices
and flat-panel displays growing fast. Between 2007 and 2016, shipments of wireless
communication devices and flat-panel displays surged an average of 15.8 percent a year to
$5.6 billion and 20.3 percent to $2.9 billion, respectively. Exports of semiconductors rose by
an average of 5.3 percent a year to $11.7 billion, petroleum products by 3.9 percent to $5.1
billion, and ships by 2.3 percent to $4.2 billion.
Korea’s purchases of goods from the ASEAN have grown with the importance of the region
as an economic cooperation partner increasing. Imports from the ASEAN countries advanced
3.3 percent on average per year during the same period -- 1.9 percentage points higher than
the annual growth in total imports at 1.4 percent. Inbound shipments from the trading bloc
came to $44.3 billion in 2016, which accounts for 10.9 percent of total imports -- up from 9.3
percent in 2007.
Inbound shipments from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Indonesia accounted for 79.2
percent of total exports from the ASEAN in 2016. The top five exporters from the ASEAN
are Vietnam (28.2 percent, $12.5 billion), Indonesia (18.7 percent, $8.3 billion), Malaysia
(16.9 percent, $7.5 billion), Singapore (15.4 percent, $6.8 billion), and Thailand (10.3 percent,
$4.6 billion).
Main imports are semiconductors, wireless communication devices, and clothing. Korea’s
purchases of wireless communication devices and clothing in particular leaped after the FTA
entered into force -- an average of 28.6 percent per year to $4 billion and 38.8 percent to $3.7
billion, respectively.
The surplus in trade between Korea and the ASEAN nations reached $30.2 billion in 2016,
growing an average of 20.5 percent a year. The surplus in trade with Vietnam makes up 66.7
percent of the total number because of Korea’s investment into Vietnam. It represents 46.7
percent of Korea’s total investment into the ASEAN region.
Trade in services grew an average of 6.6 percent a year between 2007 and 2015 thanks to
greater economic cooperation and human exchange. It stood at $43 billion in 2015, which
represents one fifth of Korea’s total service trade. During this period, trade in services with
China, the EU, and the U.S. expanded by 8.3 percent, 2.7 percent, and 1.3 percent on average
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a year, while that with Japan inched down 0.8 percent. The ASEAN has emerged as a
significant service trade partner with trade in services with the region accounting for 20.4
percent of Korea’s total service trade.
Service exports jumped 7.2 percent on average a year between 2007 and 2015, and grew to
$21.9 billion in 2015. The 2015 volume comprises transport (35.6 percent), travel (10
percent), intellectual property rights (8.8 percent), and others (18.3 percent). Other services
include security, translation and cleaning. Korea’s revenues from intellectual property rights,
and communications, computers and information services soared by 24.3 percent and 34.8
percent on average a year.
Imports of services from the region also rose by 6.1 percent on average a year. They came to
$21.1 billion in 2015, which consists of transport (30.7 percent), travel (27.7 percent),
processing services (10.7 percent), and others (20 percent). Korea’s spending on intellectual
property rights, and communications, computers and information services surged by 19.3
percent and 16.1 percent on average a year. The balance in service trade turned to surplus in
2012, and it came to a surplus of around $840 million in 2015.
In 2016, 5.5 million Koreans visited the ASEAN region -- up from 3.3 million in 2007. This
represents more than a quarter of those travelling abroad. During the same period, the number
of visitors from the ASEAN region to Korea soared to 2.2 million from approximately
760,000. Visitors from the region accounted for 12.9 percent of the total entering Korea. The
number of ASEAN residents in Korea also jumped to around 31,000 in 2016 from 18,000 in
2007. They made up 27.5 percent of foreign residents in Korea as of March 2017.
Korea’s investment in ASEAN countries soared more than fivefold during the 10-year period
between 2007 and 2016, compared to a decade earlier. Korea invested an average of around
$6 billion a year in the region, while an average of $1.1 billion was put in every year between
1997 and 2006.
Vietnam accounted for 38.6 percent of Korea’s investment into the ASEAN in the last five
years. The top five destinations of Korea’s investment to the ASEAN in 2016 were Vietnam
($3 billion), Singapore ($1.4 billion), Indonesia ($708 million, Cambodia ($397 million), and
Myanmar ($327 million). Korea put $2.8 billion into the manufacturing industry, $1 billion
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into finance and insurance, around $610 million into wholesale and retail business, around
$440 million into mining, and around $390 million into real estate business. Major investors
include Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in Vietnam; POSCO and Hankook Tire in
Indonesia; SK Group in Singapore; Lotte Chemical and Hanwha Chemical in Malaysia; and
POSCO Coated and Color Steel and Lotte Chilsung Beverage in Myanmar.
< Trade between Korea and 10 ASEAN countries >
(Unit: $1 million)
50,000
45,000
45,125
Vietnam
40,000
37,576
35,000
Singapore
35,053
Malaysia
32,564 32,658
30,000
29,806
21,489
23,094
12,983
5,000
0
22,953
21,665
9,519
7,219
9,326
the Philippines
19,265
18,549
15,000
10,000
Indomesia
Thailand
25,000
20,000
28,263
30,342
12,489 13,363 11,570
10,910 11,495
10,507
Myanmar
Cambodia
Brunei
Laos
1,026
1,587
2,598
2009
2010
2011
2,095
2,037
1,582
1,239
2012
2013
2014
2015
779
2016
As more Korean companies established their manufacturing bases in ASEAN countries to
enter the regional market, exports of intermediary goods increased, help creating jobs in
small and medium enterprises. This also contributed to ASEAN countries’ exports to third
markets as well as the development of their manufacturing industries.
The ASEAN countries invested $1.4 billion on average a year in Korea during the same
period, compared to about $1 billion a decade earlier. Singapore is the third largest investor in
Korea, and represented 89.2 percent of the investment by the ASEAN in the last five years.
More than 88 percent of the ASEAN’s investment into Korea headed to the service industry,
and the rest to the manufacturing sector.
In order to strengthen the relations as economic cooperation partners and maximize benefits
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of the trade agreement even further, Korea will endeavor to accelerate negotiations for
upgrading the existing Korea-ASEAN FTA. In 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community
(AEC) was launched, and the Korea-ASEAN FTA should be enhanced in accordance with
this.
The upgraded FTA is expected to improve market access and the schedules for tariff
reductions. There is also the need for a more concrete agreement on economic cooperation as
an increase in non-tariff measures has been observed.
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