DAEGU < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(DAEGU=Yonhap News) Daegu businesses increase trade with emerging economies as part of their export diversification strategy

Businesses in Daegu engaged in international trade managed to increase the volume of their business with their counterparts in Korea’s free trade partner countries.

On March 14, the Daegu Chamber of Commerce said that Daegu’s businesses handled trade worth USD 8.633 billion with their counterparts in Korea’s free trade partner countries in 2017, which is a 4.7% increase from the preceding year.

In particular, Daegu’s businesses managed to increase exports and imports by USD 5.273 billion (5.1%) and USD 3.359 billion (4.1%), respectively. This increased the trade surplus by USD 1.914 billion or 7.1%.

Trade with Korea’s free trade partner countries accounted for 74.1% of all of Daegu’s international trade, which is 5.9% higher than the national average.

The top 10 products that led to this increase in Daegu’s exports were automotive parts, polyester textiles, pumps, high-speed steel and hard metal tools, printed circuits, other steel and metal products, machinery, synthetic resins, raw materials for precision chemical engineering, and farming machinery.

Daegu’s businesses, in particular, increased their exports to the United States by 19.9% (USD 1.255 billion), while maintaining the same level of imports at USD 0.267 billion.

The increase in Daegu’s exports to the United States is all the more remarkable in light of the Trump administration’s repeated threats to abolish and renegotiate the Korea-US free trade agreement.

In the meantime, Daegu’s exports to China took only a slight drop at 1.5% (USD 1.563 billion), despite the escalating conflict between Korea and China over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

Also remarkable are the significant increases in Daegu’s trade with emerging economies, such as India (26.3%), Vietnam (15.8%), and Chile (15.8%).

Lee Jae-gyeong, Vice-President of the Daegu Chamber of Commerce, explained: “We plan to introduce diverse support programs for local exporting businesses to help them continue their trade with emerging economies under our export diversification policy.”

tjdan@yna.co.kr

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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Mar. 14, 2018)

** This article was translated from the Korean.